Iowa congressmen blame partisanship for lack of deficit deal

Iowa's congressmen are expressing disappointment that the so-called "super committee" of their peers has failed to reach a ten-year deal that would cut the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion.

The 12-member super committee failed to reach a budget deal Monday, announcing it could not find consensus on how to reduce the nation's deficit.

Democrat Sen. Tom Harkin laid the blame squarely on the GOP.

“If there was any question in anyone's mind, Republican intransigence throughout this process has clearly demonstrated that they do not care about deficit reduction, but rather use deficit reduction as a cover for their true aim, preserving tax cuts for the rich,” Harkin said.

While Democrats have worked in a spirit of bipartisanship, he said, “”Republicans have repeatedly drawn a line in the sand, not only rejecting these proposals, but even going further and proposing additional tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who held out hope for a deficit deal despite voting against creating the super committee, assigned blame for its failure on President Barack Obama.

“The president should have been engaged and at least have offered a credible deficit reduction plan,” Grassley said. “In addition, the majority leadership of the Senate continues to do nothing about the budget challenges, despite the urgency.”

First District Rep. Bruce Braley said “partisan ideology is trumping common sense in Washington.”

“Leaders from both political parties have failed to put aside their differences and come together to pursue what they must know is the only reasonable option for reducing our massive federal budget deficit,” the Waterloo Democrat said.

The outcome of the super committee process “is another example of the dysfunction and brinkmanship that already led the country to the edge earlier this year,” added 2

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District Rep. Dave Loebsack, an Iowa City Democrat.

“While I was hopeful that we would not be in this situation again, I opposed the creation of the super committee because I didn't believe kicking the can down the road would change the partisan politics in Washington,” Loebsack said.

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District Rep. Tom Latham, an Ames Republican, called the deficit committee outcome “another outrageous failure by Washington to set aside partisan bickering and finger-pointing to work together.”

“I voted against the establishment of the super committee in part because of my concerns that it was designed to fail and would lead to even more gridlock,” Latham said. “My concerns sadly appear to have been justified with the shameless disintegration of this process into nothing but political finger-pointing over the past few days.”

Fifth District Rep. Steve King, a Kiron Republican, told a Le Mars audience not to worry about the “political maneuvering” of the super committee.

He was in Le Mars Monday for a town-hall meeting at the Good Samaritan Society.

People had questions about the future of Medicare, especially with the recent failure of the super committee to reduce the deficit. But King has a different solution to the need for budget cuts.

He called for passage of a proposal by Montana Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg to cut $1.379 trillion from spending increases built into ‘ObamaCare.'

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