Huntsman, Perry, McConnell statements on super committee failure

Zion National Park, Utah

The failure of the super committee will be a topic discussed at many Thanksgiving dinners in three days. Here are a couple of conversation starters, courtesy of a couple of Republican presidential candidates and the Republican Senate leader.

First former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman:

Today I empathize with Americans who are overly frustrated with our government's inability to accomplish anything," said Governor Huntsman. "We face a historic debt, and people cannot trust their elected leaders to agree on even a modest level of spending reductions. The fact that the president's utter abandonment of leadership on our debt crisis necessitated a super committee signals his failure and Washington's dysfunction. It's time to get serious. We need bold solutions and principled leadership to renew and rebuild America."

Now Texas Governor Rick Perry:

Ultimately, responsibility for this failure lays at President Obama's feet. The whole reason a super committee was created was because the President wasn't willing to lead, wasn't willing to even put on paper his plans for cutting spending. It's amazing to what lengths he will go to avoid making tough decisions. And who pays the price for Washington's failure? The American people and our military personnel, who will now be subjected to a half trillion dollars in national defense cuts?

The president and Congress should work through the Thanksgiving holidays, work through weekends and recesses to cut federal spending, undo the damage being done to our military personnel and fix the budget mess. Our military gets the job done in life-threatening conditions every day, it's time the President and Congress get serious about cutting federal spending and balancing the federal budget.

The super committee's failure is the perfect illustration of how Washington is broken and needs to be seriously overhauled. As [resident, I will demand a complete overhaul of Washington, D.C. starting with a Balanced Budget Amendment, a part-time citizen Congress, and major tax and spending cuts to jump-start our economy and create good American jobs. We can fix the system with my flat tax and serious reforms cutting taxes to a flat 20 percent, ending earmarks and corporate tax loopholes, and balancing the federal budget by 2020.

And finally, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has this to say:

For those of us who hoped that this committee could make some of the tough decisions President Obama continues to avoid, the Democrats' rejection of not one but two good-faith Republican proposals is deeply disappointing. The good news is that even without an agreement, $1.2 trillion will still be cut from the deficit. Now it falls on the President to ensure that the defense cuts he insisted upon do not undermine national security, as Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has warned.

With this administration's out-of-control federal spending over the past three years, unemployment stuck at 9 percent, and a $15 trillion debt which grows daily, we felt it was necessary to create this extraordinary mechanism to reduce spending and make needed changes. Republicans viewed this committee as a golden opportunity to change the direction of the nation's fiscal trajectory and create a better environment for job growth. This was reflected in the seriousness of our appointees, and it was reflected in two Republican proposals that were designed to attract Democratic support.

While Democrats insisted on a trillion-dollar tax hike and hundreds of billions of dollars in new stimulus spending, Republicans focused on pro-growth tax reform, protecting Medicare and Medicaid, and reducing Washington spending. Crucially, Republicans also proposed reducing government benefits to the wealthiest Americans. In our view, the best way to ensure that Washington doesn’t waste more taxpayer money is to give less of it away to those who don't need it--not to take more from taxpayers and hope for the best. If Democrats were more concerned about the deficit than in making government bigger, they would embrace proposals like this, too.

In the end, an agreement proved impossible not because Republicans were unwilling to compromise, but because Democrats would not accept any proposal that did not expand the size and scope of government or punish job creators. This fact was underscored in the final hours of negotiations by their refusal to accept even a basic package of spending cuts and revenue that they had already agreed to during previous debt-limit negotiations—unless they were accompanied by a tax hike on the very people Americans are counting on to create the jobs we desperately need. Not even a proposal to get rid of a tax deduction for corporate jet owners, something Democrats had previously eyed as a major prize, was enough to move them off their puzzling insistence on taxing job creators in the middle of a jobs crisis.

My main criteria for selecting members to this committee was to identify serious, constructive senators who are interested in achieving a result that helps to get our nation’s fiscal house in order. Sens. Kyl, Toomey and Portman lived up to that challenge. I would like to thank them, and the members and staff of the committee who devoted so much time and effort to finding a solution.

While we'll still reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion, much more needs to be done. And we'll continue our efforts to reduce the size of Washington, reform and protect the entitlement system for future generations, and create a better environment for job growth.

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