Super Committee - Mattel Case

Summary

The congressional "super committee" has a few days left to reduce deficits by $1.5 trillion. However, the super committee is not expected not to meet its deadline on November 23rd. It will be up to American voters next year to decide how to tackle rising deficits if the bipartisan panel does not come up with a proposal and have it approved. Tax and spending issues will be up to whichever party elected in next year's election. The Republicans would like to greatly reduce spending on Medicare and lower tax rates, preferably extend the George Bush-era income tax cuts. The Democrats would try to block any major changes in Medicare and push for a tax increase on the wealthy. If the committee fails to reach a deal, it would trigger automatic cuts of $1.2 trillion. Congressional leaders care more about their parties and getting reelected than trying to achieve a deal.

Critique

The article had some weaknesses because it was not complete. The author should have been more detailed on what programs the automatic cuts of $1.2 trillion would affect. In addition, she should have provided more information about the super committee. However, there were some strengths. She was not biased because her article included Republicans and Democrats plan on how to solve the country's deficit problem. The article had a good amount of facts about the political campaign next year and what the politicians plan on asserting for their preferred economic approach.

Conclusion

The author did not come up with a proposal. However, she did seem to offer a conclusion. Her conclusion was that the super committee and politicians would rather let the economy fail because they care more about getting reelected and not angering their parties' beliefs than to pass a bipartisan proposal. The proposal that I think is appropriate to address the issue of the super committee's failure to come up with a proposal is for the congressional panel to end the gridlock. Democrats and Republicans need to come up with a compromise because the stalemate is not doing the economy any good.