Democrats on the 12-member “supercommittee” have presented their Republican colleagues with a plan to cut the deficit by $3 trillion over the next decade. Not surprisingly, it includes a massive tax increase and hundreds of billions in new spending. The Hill reports:
Democrats on the congressional supercommittee this week presented Republicans with a plan to cut the deficit that included billions of dollars in stimulus spending, aides told The Hill.
In a private meeting of the deficit panel Tuesday, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, presented a proposal backed by a majority of Democrats on the panel that includes trillions of dollars in tax increases. The revenue would partially cover stimulus spending for the economy, aides said.
More than 50 percent of the deficit reduction in the plan would come from tax increases, one source said.
Sources tell NRO that Democrats want at least $300 billion in new stimulus in line with President Obama’s latest jobs proposal. GOP leaders have made clear that any supercommittee plan that includes tax increases would be unacceptable, and any request for additional stimulus is sure to be a non-starter among Republicans in both chambers. So what, exactly, are Democrats trying to accomplish? From the Washington Post:
Democratic aides, meanwhile, privately expressed little hope that a big deal is possible. They said Senate Democrats might be setting the stage to paint themselves as good-faith negotiators and to lay blame for the failure to reach agreement at the feet of Republicans.
Of course, what else would you expect from a group of lawmakers that hasn’t passed an actual budget in nearly three years?