Captain Clueless.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite prodding from President Barack Obama, members of Congress’ supercommittee concede no deal is in sight to meet their goal of $1.2 trillion or more in deficit savings over the next decade.
Instead, with only 10 days remaining until a Nov. 23 deadline, the panel is divided along partisan lines and Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., said Sunday the six committee members of his own party “have not coalesced around a plan.”
“There’s no magic formula. There are no magic beans that you can toss on the ground and suddenly a bunch of money grows on trees,” Obama added. “We got to just go ahead and do the responsible thing.”. . .
But Obama described the situation differently at a news conference after wrapping up an economic summit with leaders of Pacific-region nations.
“If we’ve got to raise money, it makes sense for us to start by asking the wealthiest among us to pay a little bit more before we start asking seniors, for example, to pay a lot more for their Medicare,” he said.