It was not a very ambitious target. All that the congressional "supercommittee" was required to do was to figure out a list of measures that would reduce America's budget deficits by $1.2 trillion over the next ten years. That sounds a lot, until you realise it is only 0.6% ot gdp, not even a quarter ot the $5 trillion or so that is really needed to right the books in Washington, and less than 3% of the $44 trillion that the federal government is expected to spend over that period. To reach a goal that a business cost-cutter would regard as desultory, the bipartisan committee of 12 senators and congressmen was accorded exceptional powers. Its work was to be subject to a simple up-or-down vote, with no possibility of amendment; and the Senate would not be able to use its power to filibuster. Yet on November 21st, after three months of deliberation, the team was forced to admit that it had failed.
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