In recent weeks, members of the deficit-cutting supercommittee have been busy raking in campaign bucks and basking in the attention of dozens of fawning lobbyists.
Never have 12 members of Congress been put on such a pedestal.
But, with their Nov. 23 deadline approaching, the supercommittee got a wake-up call on Tuesday when former officials who have led previous attempts to spur congressional action on the debt and deficit lectured the committee on the need to pursue a broad, sweeping plan with a minimum impact of $4 trillion.
“I’m worried you’re going to fail, fail the country,” former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles told the committee.
Bowles and former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming chaired a commission last year that proposed recommendations for reducing the federal deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years through a simplification of the tax code, spending cuts and elimination of some tax breaks. The supercommittee has only been charged by Congress with finding $1.2 trillion in savings.
The committee also heard some blunt comments from former Office of Management and Budget Director Alice Rivlin and former Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico. Rivlin and Domenici chaired another bipartisan commission that looked into recommendations for reducing the deficit.
Domenici said both Republicans and Democrats will be complicit if either is unwilling to compromise.
All four agreed that there is no way that simply raising taxes or cutting spending will be enough to solve the federal government’s systemic problem in which future entitlements such as Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security will cost more than the money being taken in to pay for them.
Simpson, in his characteristically cranky way, singled out the AARP for cynically running TV ads that warn Congress not to touch Medicare or Social Security. The former senator said the top AARP representatives have revealed themselves to be “marketers … not patriots.”
In just six weeks, nearly 200 companies and special interests have reported that they’re lobbying the supercommittee, according to numbers compiled by Politico.
That’s a stunning ratio of lobbyists to lawmakers but makes sense when you consider the high stakes faced by interests ranging from the health care industry to Native American tribes, Politico reports. These groups fear the supercommittee will find $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction before Thanksgiving by cutting their funding or raising their taxes.
Lobbyists have blitzed Washington, blanketing Capitol Hill with phone calls to lawmakers’ offices, launching print and online advertising campaigns, and working to activate their grassroots bases.
The two Michigan Republicans — Reps. Dave Camp of Midland and Fred Upton of St. Joseph – who serve on the committee pulled in a treasure trove of campaign bucks last quarter because of the catbird seats they enjoy on the supercommittee.
The 200 trade associations, companies and lobbying firms that have smothered the committee are led by health care companies but also include representatives from the defense, transportation, energy, telecom and education sectors.
According to Politico, the airline industry is engaging in a full-on lobbying assault as it tries to ensure that two revenue raisers in President Barack Obama’s jobs plan that would cost the industry $36 billion over 10 years aren’t included in the supercommittee’s final plan.
The lobbying has only intensified as the panel appears to be split between a $3-billion plan put forward by Democrats that raises some tax revenues and a less ambitious one put forth by Republicans that includes no revenue increases.
