Noem puts pressure on the super committee

KSFY

By Alex Ronallo

In Washington the Congressional Super Committee is struggling to reach a deal.

They have the tough task of coming up with a plan to reduce the national deficit by 1.2 trillion dollars over the next ten years and they have until next Wednesday to do it.

Last August the United States was on the brink of defaulting on the national debt, that’s when lawmakers formed the super committee,  they gave members until November 23rd to agree on a debt-reduction plan.

After that, congress would have a month to pass it, then the President would need to sign it.

A failure to pass an agreement in time will equal 1.2 trillion dollars in cuts across the board.

That would be divided down the middle between defense and non-defense spending.

This is a very unpopular idea on Capitol Hill and now more congressional members, including South Dakota’s own congresswoman are trying to light a fire under the super committee before it’s too late.

South Dakota’s Congresswoman Kristi Noem went on CNN Wednesday to express the urgency on Capitol Hill.  She says, “this super committee needs to come up with a bill and present it. it’s time we do our job here in Washington, D.C. and give us something that actually offers some solutions.”

The bi-partisan Super Committee has the challenge of finding a way to reduce the more than 14 trillion dollar national deficit by a little more than one trillion.  Noem says the committee has a week to find a plan, but there are other factors lending urgency to the matter, like a growing military in China.  Noem says, “the fact is that they hold a lot of our debt too, so the more debt we continue to accumulate, that’s who’s been buying our bonds.”

The Super Committee is looking at possibilities ranging from cuts to tax increases to solve the debt problem, Republicans tend to shy away from tax increases and Democrats tend to avoid making cuts to certain programs, but Noem says Republicans like her can agree on a sort of compromise.  She says, “I’ve always said I’m not in favor of raising tax rates, but I’m certainly in favor of a more fair system, which means eliminating some of those loopholes and exemptions that have been around for decades.”

Which the congresswoman acknowledges means some people would end up paying more in taxes.  So far, however, there is not enough compromise in the Super Committee, a deal remains out of reach, despite the best efforts of their co-workers on Capitol Hill, whom Noem says are trying to encourage a solution.  She says, “we’ve got the pressure on…we’ve been very vocal about that. we expect them to bring forward results, if they don’t it’ll be very disappointing.”

Super Committee Republicans had previously offered a proposal with 1.4 trillion dollars in deficit reduction, that would have included cutting all income tax rates by about 20%.  Democrats rejected the idea saying it would end up decreasing revenue in the long run.