Saxby Chambliss, Johnny Isakson take aim at lame-duck session and a ‘fiscal cliff’
Georgia’s two U.S. senators have spent the month of August laying the groundwork for the campaign after the campaign.
In December, with a bitter and exhausting race for the White House in the rear view mirror, a lame-duck Congress will be forced to come to grips with the consequences of last year’s failure to approve a plan to significantly reduce a $16 trillion federal deficit.
Without bipartisan agreement in both the House and Senate, $1.2 trillion in cuts to domestic and defense programs will begin at years’ end. Of that, $492 billion in cuts over 10 years will be aimed at the Pentagon. Plus, those Bush-era tax cuts will all vanish.
The operative term is “sequestration.” But “fiscal cliff” will do.
Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson have held session after session at Georgia’s military bases and their surrounding communities, emphasizing the “devastating” impact the cuts would have on local economies – not to mention defense readiness.
“This is just one of those times, if there ever was a time, that we have an opportunity to try to thread both sides back together and operate the way the House and Senate are supposed to operate,” Chambliss said in an interview in Macon, after delivering his dire message to the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.
The across-the-board cuts are the penalty for the failure of a “super committee” to come to grips with the deficit. Both the committee and the sword of Damocles were contained in the debt-ceiling agreement hammered out by the Senate and House last August.
Republican are still divided over its wisdom. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney opposed the deal. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, now the GOP vice presidential nominee, supported it.
“Sequestration was the poison pill designed to prevent what’s happening from ever happening. Unfortunately, they swallowed the pill,” said Isakson, in a telephone interview from Pelham, Ga.
One sign of the two senators’ seriousness: In addition to Republican members of Congress, they have invited Democrats – John Barrow of Augusta and Sanford Bishop of Albany – to their press conferences, too.
Similar forays have been conducted by senators in Texas and New England – important geography for the Air Force and Navy, respectively.
That announcement by Lockheed Martin that it is laying off 550 workers from its Marietta plant – U.S. government orders of its C-130J are down – could be considered part of the same effort.
As could last week’s report by the Congressional Budget Office, which declared that sequestration could send the nation into another recession, and kill 2 million jobs in the process.
The “super committee” negotiations failed last year, in part, because tea party enthusiasts took the upper hand in the debate. House Republicans dared not accept anything that smacked of compromise – much less a tax increase.
Isakson and Chambliss are clearly trying to bring business leaders into the next debate, earlier and more forcefully, as a counterweight.
Chambliss outlined four options for Congress:
— Let the across-the-board cuts take place. “There are a lot of people in the House and Senate that would actually like to see that happen.”
— “Secondly, we can eviscerate the whole thing, which would be the wrong thing to do.”
— “Thirdly, we can kick it down the road, 60 days or 90 days, 12 months, whatever. “
— “Or we can come up with the big deal, the grand bargain, that addresses all of these issues that involved in the fiscal cliff, as well as sequestration.”
Chambliss, of course, has been pushing for the big deal, though his bipartisan “Gang of Six” effort with Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., adopting many of the recommendations of the Simpson-Bowles debt commission.
That a lame-duck Congress could or should reach a massive debt bargain in a 30-day window isn’t likely, Chambliss admits. What he would like to see is a good start – perhaps delaying expiration of the Bush tax cuts for six months, while the next Congress hammers out a new tax code.
As an incentive, Congress could adopt yet another hammer – automatic implications of the Simpson-Bowles recommendations if the House and Senate fail to act. That would require a 3-to-1 ratio of federal spending cuts to revenue increases.
Keep in mind that, last year, all Republican candidates for president – including Romney – said they would reject even a 10-to-1 ratio of cuts to tax hikes.
December will be a risky season for both Isakson and Chambliss. “This is not about not making the cuts. It’s about doing it the responsible way — not abdicating to an across-the-board cut,” Isakson said.
But the risk is greater for Chambliss, who is likely to begin his 2014 re-election campaign next year. “The profile of this issue is getting raised every day, and I’ve been out front on it from day one. If you solve the problem, the politics takes care of itself,” Chambliss said. “But will it draw an opponent? Yeah, I’m sure.”
More than likely, Chambliss will shake hands with that opponent – whoever he or she may be – at the Republican National Convention in Tampa this week.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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112 comments Add your comment
td
August 25th, 2012
1:10 pm
here’s my offshore tax haven
August 25th, 2012
12:51 pm
Am I a bad person? Rich people like Romney put their millions/billions in banks in the Cayman Islands
And this is bad how? Was the money reported as capital gains to the IRS? If so then what is the problem?
DannyX
August 25th, 2012
1:17 pm
Top 3 posts from today
cc
August 25th, 2012
10:36 am
Old Farmer:
Typo: “odea” should be “idea”
++++++++++++
cc
August 25th, 2012
10:19 am
Typo: “snoppy” should read “snippy”
Sorry . . .
+++++++++++++++
cc
August 25th, 2012
12:57 pm
Where’s my offshore tax haven:
“Am I a bad person?”
Yep.
+++++++++++++++++++++
Welcome back UGA 1999, I missed you!
td
August 25th, 2012
1:24 pm
Our rich politicians want more tax cuts
August 25th, 2012
12:45 pm
Our dear wealthy leaders are willing to sacrifice so much for our nation. Actually, they are willing to sacrifice us (middle and lower income people) for the sake of their precious tax cuts.
More BS. The top 10% of the country makes 43% of all income and pays 70% of all taxes (for reference that is anyone household whose AGI is over $112 thousand per year. The bottom 50% makes 13% of all the money and pays 2% of all the income taxes.
We have almost 50% of the nation receiving some type of an entitlement program (Does not include SS or Medicare).
DannyX
August 25th, 2012
1:30 pm
“We have almost 50% of the nation receiving some type of an entitlement program (Does not include SS or Medicare).”
td, most of this entitlement you speak of is “”the best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress.”
Nixon loved it, Ford signed it into law and Reagan greatly expanded it. Why the class warfare td?
cc
August 25th, 2012
1:50 pm
DannyX;
“Welcome back UGA 1999, I missed you!”
I am not sure whether I have been insulted here. At any rate, no cigar for you . . .
ld
August 25th, 2012
1:53 pm
Not an Obama fan; don’t believe he has the stones to send the polititions off the fiscal cliff they themselves designed. DO WISH HE WOULD. It will make the US Military more efficient and effective if they must put a priority on every taxpayer dollar they spend. It will make some of those “values voters” drop out of the economic middle class and, if Romney is elected, it could force them to get an up-close-and-personal look at the EFFECTS of GOP economic policy on the employee class — how it affects the “least among us” and maybe they would be less eager to support the party of further enrichment for the wealthiest that will have a difficult time putting their camel through the eye of that needle to get to heaven.
cc
August 25th, 2012
1:55 pm
Can anyone give me a rational explanation as to why welfare recipients are now furnished cell phones and air time?
I’d also like to know why those people consider it imperative to talk (and talk loudly) on those cell phones as their EBT purchases are being checked y the cashiers.
td
August 25th, 2012
1:55 pm
cc
August 25th, 2012
1:50 pm
DannyX;
“Welcome back UGA 1999, I missed you!”
I am not sure whether I have been insulted here. At any rate, no cigar for you . . .
UGA 1999 was a good conservative poster but he/she has been banned by Jim. So has a poster named cen….t (If I actually type the word of his/her screen name it goes to moderation.
Jim
August 25th, 2012
1:59 pm
Class warfare advocates are pathetic. What do you have to say about the 50% who pay nothing in federal income taxes? What is their fair share? Is it to stand like a bunch of losers with their hands out while the government takes from a more indutrious person and gives it to them? Most of them would go to a covered dish dinner without a dish and complain about the food.The government has wasted 17 trillion dollars of money on all of these give away programs and turned a good segment of our population into bums.
td
August 25th, 2012
2:00 pm
ld
August 25th, 2012
1:53 pm
Just wait on the reaction in October when those defense contractors hand out all those pink slips (over 100,000 in key swing states) in October. Who do you think is going to get blamed?
The Kingfish
August 25th, 2012
2:01 pm
I don’t believe the Macon Chamber of Commerce has a vote in either the House or the Senate, so he’s just pandering to them. Let him go back to Washington and try to shake some sense into the hollow heads of Tea Party Congressmen who couldn’t find the Men’s Restroom let along a solution to the complicated issues before the Congress and the country.
Back in the day these newly elected congressmen would have been told to sit down and shut up and they’d be contacted when and how to vote.
These ol’ boys, however, came to Washington and before they found out where to hang their coats were telling the Speaker what to do and when to do it and what they were going to do and what they weren’t going to do.
The Republican leadership can’t control these yahoos, so how the heck do you get them to cooperate with anybody. They are in Washington to never compromise and to oppose everything coming from the president.
Real statesmen, one and freakin’ all!
cc
August 25th, 2012
2:03 pm
td:
How do you think the projected loss of two million jobs will affect the economy? That is what some estimate the defense contractors and various associated businesses will suffer if this cut remains intact. When the defense contractors cease doing business, who will we rely on if we absolutely need ships built, repaired or modified? What will we do to remain ‘combat ready’ in terms of air superiority? How about the R & D on weapons systems? You and I agree that the national defense is one of the very few legitimate functions of the federal government? I’m just asking . . .
Bernie
August 25th, 2012
2:06 pm
What other action could be expected from a Man like SAXBY, who told America…I cannot go and DEFEND YOU in VietNam because “I HURT, MY LEG!”. Because I may need it ……..if I ever need to turn back and RUN!
So I will just stay here with the women and children and then wait for REAL American Hero to return and Mug his Senate seat from him by saying …He does not love or want to PROTECT America, more than Saxby!
A Man who is willing to do such Dastardly ACTS…can never be trusted to DO the RIGHT thing for AMERICA. Its just NOT in his DNA!
To take a quote from the movie As GOOD AS IT GETS ” Get Serious and Think WHITE! – Jack Nicholson’s character – Mr. UDALL
cc
August 25th, 2012
2:08 pm
Jim:
The Kenyan has done little else but promote class warfare since he was coronated. The man billed as the “Great Uniter” has proven himself to be the “Great Divider”. It suits his purposes and futhers his end game.
cc
August 25th, 2012
2:10 pm
Bernie:
So repetitive and so boring . . .
Kris
August 25th, 2012
2:13 pm
What a pair of losers Chambliss and Isakson they care nothing about the citizens only their wealthy conies. I say Vote or recall the sorry lot out of office and run hem out on a rail…oops my bad they probably voted down the rail system…I guss a cart pulled by a jackass will do.
Re-elect President Barack Obama 2012
cc
August 25th, 2012
2:15 pm
Kris:
Do you have even a second verse of that song? Every day you say the same thing and frankly, it is getting tiresome.
DannyX
August 25th, 2012
2:17 pm
“Class warfare advocates are pathetic. What do you have to say about the 50% who pay nothing in federal income taxes?”
Who are the pathetic ones Jim? Today’s conservatives are the ones that are playing the class warfare game. Those 50% are paying nothing because of of Nixon, Ford and Reagan. Now all of the sudden conservatives are having a fit. It used to be that conservatives like Reagan understood that wealthy people should take on a larger tax burden. The rich in this country have gone to from baring that burden to lobbying and paying off our politicians to the point of the absurd, with loopholes and special tax breaks galore.
After 40 years conservatives have discovered their very own Earned Income Tax Credit, that is what is pathetic. They now are using it as a weapon. Pathetic.
Bernie
August 25th, 2012
2:21 pm
cc @ 2:10 pm – Your Magical Mitt like UNDERWEAR has been confirmed they will be arriving on Monday. However there is nothing on supplying you a BRAIN yet! Lets hope and pray the Underwear will works its Magic for you and will help clear some of the fog that presently around the current very acorn like brain you presently carry! The weight of it must be very TIRING!
TAX THE RICH!!!
August 25th, 2012
2:24 pm
TAX THE RICH!!!!
Bernie
August 25th, 2012
2:24 pm
cc @ 1:55 pm – The same reason why Gov. DEAL wants to spend $430 million dollars on a Brand NEW WELFARE Program for children like yours, called the STATE CHARTER SCHOOL PLAN. Like the Governor said the other day ” It has its PLACE.”
cc
August 25th, 2012
2:26 pm
Bernie:
Was that your best shot?
If you can’t run with the big dogs (and you defintely can’t), stay on the porch.
td
August 25th, 2012
2:27 pm
cc
August 25th, 2012
2:03 pm
It is going to send us straight back into a recession just like the CBO said last week it would. It will also accomplish what these communist want and kill our military advantage around the world so that their fellow communist can come back into power. The Obama long term plan.
DannyX
August 25th, 2012
2:31 pm
“It will also accomplish what these communist want and kill our military advantage around the world so that their fellow communist can come back into power.”
Then why in the Hell did the Republicans agree to it??????????????
cc
August 25th, 2012
2:31 pm
Bernie:
That isn’t an answer to my query. Your pitiful reply defies logic, but then nearly everything you psst defies logic.
Do you want to enlighten us today on any pearls of information you got from the “Gawker”?
cc
August 25th, 2012
2:35 pm
td:
“It is going to send us straight back into a recession”
I didn’t even know we were out of the last one! The GDP and the unemplyment rate certainly doesn’t indicate that we’ve come out of the recession.
td
August 25th, 2012
2:39 pm
DannyX
August 25th, 2012
2:31 pm
“Then why in the Hell did the Republicans agree to it??????????????”
Because they were stupid. They should have called the bluff of the Dems and shut down the government but the cowardly establishment Republicans do have have the testicular fortitude to do the right theng.
DannyX
August 25th, 2012
2:40 pm
td, keep thinking the public will blame the “fiscal cliff” on Obama.
The fact is this was the best that our Congress could come up with, it is a big part of the reason why Congress has a 12% approval rating. If you think that dismal approval is all on the Democrats you are sadly mistaken.
td
August 25th, 2012
2:43 pm
cc
August 25th, 2012
2:35 pm
“I didn’t even know we were out of the last one! ”
Only by the technical definition. What really happened is our deep recession has turned into a depression due to the Democratic policies.
DannyX
August 25th, 2012
2:46 pm
“I didn’t even know we were out of the last one! The GDP and the unemplyment rate certainly doesn’t indicate that we’ve come out of the recession.”
You are not very bright are you? GDP most certainly does indicate we are out of the recession.
As for jobs Paul Ryan said this, “What we are trying to accomplish here is the recognition of the fact that in recessions, unemployment lags on even well after recovery takes place.”
DannyX
August 25th, 2012
2:47 pm
“What really happened is our deep recession has turned into a depression due to the Democratic policies.”
Pure Republican fantasy. td is again making things up and does not have the facts to back that statement up.
td
August 25th, 2012
2:49 pm
DannyX
August 25th, 2012
2:40 pm
” If you think that dismal approval is all on the Democrats you are sadly mistaken.”
A point we finally agree on. The Tea Party has now been working for the past two election cycles to get rid of those establishment Republicans that do not understand fiscal responsibility. What have you Dems been doing?
cc
August 25th, 2012
2:51 pm
DannyX:
“The fact is this was the best that our Congress could come up with, it is a big part of the reason why Congress has a 12% approval rating. If you think that dismal approval is all on the Democrats you are sadly mistaken.”
The vast majority of people who make up the House and the Senate are, or have become, elitists. They enact laws from which they exempt themselves, they act only when a crisis arises and they lie to their constituents. Their approval rating is deserved . . .
cc
August 25th, 2012
2:53 pm
DannyX:
Who isn’t very bright? Who’s kidding who?
Yeah, that GDP is really smokin’!
cc
August 25th, 2012
2:56 pm
DannyX:
The next thing you say will be that the Kenyan has created millions of jobs . . .
Save it . . . ’cause I ain’t buyin’ it.
I thought you were smarter . . .
DannyX
August 25th, 2012
2:56 pm
“Who isn’t very bright?”
You are not very bright. You are the one that used our current GDP to make a totally false statement.
Bernie
August 25th, 2012
3:04 pm
A Salute to Neil Armstrong………We Thank -YOu! Rest in Peace. America!
td
August 25th, 2012
3:06 pm
DannyX
August 25th, 2012
2:56 pm
“Who isn’t very bright?”
You are not very bright. You are the one that used our current GDP to make a totally false statement.
If you actually knew a little about how the GDP is calculated today as it was calculated 20 years ago then you might back off that statement but then again if you were that bright then you would not be a lib.
DannyX
August 25th, 2012
3:08 pm
“If you actually knew a little about how the GDP is calculated today as it was calculated 20 years ago then you might back off that statement but then again if you were that bright then you would not be a lib.”
More deflection. Blah, blah, blah.
Buckhead Boy
August 25th, 2012
3:15 pm
The Recession ended in June 2009. Now that’s a fact! And, the economy has improved continuously since the passage of the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” in February 2009. That’s another fact! And, it would probably have improved even more had the Republicans, who previously had championed the “Economic Stimulus Act of 2008″ and prior such initiatives, not been intent on obstructing this President to the detriment of we, the people. Now that’s just my opinion. Just trying to be helpful to those who can’t seem to distinguish between fact and opinion.
td
August 25th, 2012
3:16 pm
DannyX
August 25th, 2012
3:08 pm
“More deflection. Blah, blah, blah”
If we were still calculating GDP now the same way we did in the 1920’s then we would still be in a depression. Facts hurt don’t they?
Bernie
August 25th, 2012
3:26 pm
As The ship TO NOWHERE finally arrives in Tampa Next week. I wonder if all the Republicans will be wearing their Magical UNDER -ROOS the same as Mitt. However, I am sure on his most special of Nights…He will have on his GOLDEN ONE’S with sparkles. As Mitt delivers the most underwhelmed and boring acceptance speech since Gerald Ford.
I cannot wait! for the start of the Laughter and Embarrassment for supporting such a CLOWN!
It will be like looking at a Box FULL of Vanilla Wafers All week! Fat, OLD, MEAN & UGLY! and that will be just the WOMEN!
20/20
August 25th, 2012
3:30 pm
Raise taxes on the rich @ 12:40p.mp;
“The wealthy are paying nearly the lowest tax rates since the Great Depression. They can and should pay more.
Romney tells us he’s paid at least 13% income tax rate for the past several years. Oh, good for you. I pay almost double that rate! HOW IS THAT FAIR!!!
—————————————————————————————————–
Perhaps it would do you well to go back and look up the word ENVY:
ENVY:
a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another’s advantages, success, possessions, etc.
Did Romney not work for the money he has earned? did you not have recourse to higher education and/or opportunities? Is it a sin because he happens to be successful? Why are you not successful? Would you like to pay more Federal taxes?
Someone else on this blog has already asked, “How much more (taxes) should Romney pay?
Tax shelters are available to anyone who chooses to use them. Anyone in America that wants to shelter $$ in the Cayman Islands can do so. I know thais may come as a surprise to you but GASP! uh, us, DEMOCRATS do the same thing…but, as w all know, that’s OK, just don’t let the nasties (GOP) do it. Also, only Republicans are rich white guys…no other sex or political affiliations can lay claim to being rich, now can they?
yuzeyurbrane
August 25th, 2012
3:53 pm
I just hear a bunch of sloganeering going back and forth. I thought people were supposed to comment on the article about Chambliss and Isakson proposals? Let’s be civil and stick to topic.
cc
August 25th, 2012
3:55 pm
20/20:
Who are you, masked man? Whomever you are, you are rapidly gaining my respect!
cc
August 25th, 2012
3:58 pm
Bernie @ 3:20 PM:
Your comments aren’t intelligent and they aren’t humorous. Do you have ANY redeeming qualities?
Jezel
August 25th, 2012
5:09 pm
cc….Is any debt by local, state and federal gov. acceptable? It is never responsible to spend more than you take in. Does not matter if it was 12 years ago, the present or 12 years from now.
Faaarrr Right
August 25th, 2012
5:14 pm
Did I not read on of of these Galloway blogs that his (Galloway’s) blogs attract Socialist Democrats much in the same manner as flies are attracted to fresh horsesh–?
Going Right
August 25th, 2012
5:26 pm
Buckhead Boy: You earned the title for the biggest crock of the week. Your “facts” come straight out of Chris Matthews and BSNBC! Not even the Convoluted News Network is that idiotic. Yep, all the GOP’s fault. Never the fault of the pure-as-driven-snow Socialist Dimocrats, no siree. Scary Reid and his minions are ALWAYS right, aren’t they? Never stand in the way those fellows. Great Heavens! What a catastrophe if the filthy, greedy, rich white guys win the election! When you get through having a tantrum, throwing up, screaming, and holding your breath till you turn blue, I can offer you a great, good-as-new Glock 9mm, let me know on line and I’ll contact you. It will put you and the rest of you out of your misery.
Going Right
August 25th, 2012
5:36 pm
Bernie @ 2:06p.m.;
I was not aware that you served in ‘Nam. What outfit? Let us know and a couple of us may have served in the same outfit, e.g., Army, USMC, etc.) and we can get away from this humdrum and share some stories. You did serve in ‘Nam, didn’t you? Must have or you wouldn’t call out Saxby the way you did.