- By Senator Jim Demint

Democrats on the so-called “Super Committee” have demonstrated why their party is disqualifying itself from any rational discussion when it comes to cutting spending.

The deficit committee was tasked with reducing the deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next ten years, but Democrats refused to make any kind of deal unless it included more than a trillion dollars of tax increases. One of their proposals, that remember is supposed to cut spending, contained billions of dollars in new stimulus spending! Despite the overwhelming evidence that the stimulus didn’t work, they are committed to funding more boondoggles big and small, like Solyndra and research for exotic ants and monkeys.

It is stunning. To meet their meager target, the Super Committee didn’t even need to cut a single penny from the budget, but only slow the rate of increase in spending by a fraction. Rather than letting the country rack up $23.4 trillion of debt by 2021, the Super Committee only needed to to keep it rising to $21.3 trillion. Still Democrats refused. $6 trillion in new deficit spending wasn’t enough for them. To Democrats, the answer of when to cut spending is simple: never.

The federal government is now $15 trillion in debt, the country is mired in recession, unemployment is at record highs, but Democrats believe taxpayers must sacrifice more so Washington doesn’t have to. Even on the brink of fiscal collapse, Democrats want to take more from American families and businesses so the government can spend more, not less. That, in a nutshell, is why the Super Committee failed and why Washington is incapable of making any of the necessary reforms to get the economy moving again.  read more »