It’s amazing when you think about the fact that we aren’t even talking about real cuts in the size and scope of our federal government … all that was being asked of them was to grow the federal government a little bit slower --- not really reduce spending, just don’t increase it quite as fast!  Can you believe it?  These “public servants” couldn’t even manage to do that. 

 Here’s your bottom line … here’s what the great super committee debate was ultimately about: Should we raise taxes so that government spending can grow by more than $2 trillion over the next 10 years?

 But then again, it’s not their fault.  The real reason that we are sitting in this position is ecause Congress has failed in its duty of passing a budget.  How many Constitutional responsibilities does the congress really have?  This is a primary one, and they couldn’t even accomplish this!  It has been well over 900 days since Congress has passed a budget.  Republicans have had control of the House for a little over 300 of those days.  It seems silly to suddenly blame our inability to reconcile on budget matters when the Democrats had plenty of time to do things without a Republican House .. but the Democrats chose not to because it wasn’t politically expedient.

 So now we are at the part where both sides try to blame each other for the failure of the super committee.  Both sides will fling hard and see which stuff sticks in the minds of the American people .. in other words, who will Americans ultimately blame?  While the ultimate loser is the American people, the political loser will be …

Republicans

 I hate to say it, but the Republicans blew it.  Despite my explanation above about the fact that it has been Democrats who have largely shirked the responsibility of passing a budget, putting us in this position … at the end of the day, Republicans are going to get the blame.  A poll released last Friday showed that the public will blame Republicans more than Democrats by a 10-point margin.  Perhaps it is because Democrats, and the Obama administration, have had a better sales pitch: wealth envy.  Just take a look at the spin from chief White House dogwasher Jay Carney:

"The $1.2 trillion that the super committee was supposed to achieve in deficit reduction will happen regardless. That was the purpose of the law … And unfortunately we come to a point where -- it really is a lot of there's a lot of complexity that is loaded on to this process unnecessarily and in the end it comes down to a decision by Republicans that they are unwilling to do with the American people say they believe should be done. Which is ask the very wealthiest Americans, millionaires and billionaires, to pay a little bit extra so that we can achieve the kind of deficit reduction in long-term debt control that we need.”

 Ahh, those evil millionaires and billionaires are being protected by the Republicans, and this is the reason why our heroic Democrats were unable to cut government spending .. because the Republicans had to protect the rich people!

 Look … Obama increased federal spending by over 25% during his first three years in office.  OVER 25% MORE SPENDING!  And the only solution to this is to give the government even more money to spend?  Could someone please tell me how that makes any logical sense at all?  Does Alcoholics Anonymous give clients trying to sober up more booze?  They increased spending by over 25%, and they couldn’t come up with just 1% in REAL spending cuts?  Are you freaking kidding me? 

 But the story line is going to be blame the Republicans … and it’s a pretty powerful, though completely fictitious storyline.  That leads us to … 

Obama and the Democrats

 They may walk away from this slightly less beat up than the Republicans.  This is because the Republican viewpoint is harder to sell.  At the end of the day, Republicans can stand back and say that all the Democrats wanted to do was increase taxes and protect entitlements.  Unfortunately, many clueless Americans would rather plunder the pockets of others so that they themselves can reap the benefits without any of the labor.  Isn’t it amazing that this is not classified as “greed,” while someone who works to earn a living and become rich IS considered greedy if they actually try to keep the money they earned?  Anyway .. this is about the only argument the Republicans have going for them, which isn’t all that sexy to the dumbmasses. 

 Others, like John Boehner and Allen West, are trying to pin the blame on Barack Obama.  I’m not sure this will be successful.  Obama has steered pretty clear of the supercommitttee, which is entirely the point of their criticism – Obama “stood by and [did] nothing to encourage bipartisanship among this committee,” said Allen West.  John Boehner says that the supercommittee “was unable to reach agreement because President Obama and Washington Democrats insisted on dramatic tax hikes on American job creators, which would make our economy worse.”