‘Super Congress’: Debt Ceiling Negotiators Aim To Create New Legislative Body

Posted on July 24, 2011 by a12iggymom

Not surprising, just that he hasn’t force the TransAtlantic Policy Network into the mix, but give Cantor and Boehner time, they’ll accomplish it…and you are letting them…

UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND LEADING TO A POLITO-BUREAU WHICH ANSWERS TO NO ONE! THEY ARE MOVING AT BREAKNECK SPEED TO A TRANSATLANTIC CONGRESS WITH THIS AS THE FIRST STEP. THIS MUST BE STOPPED NOW! House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has made a Super Congress a central part of his last-minute proposal, this “super congress” would NOT be accountable to anyone and what they pass could NOT be overturned by the rest of congress…

WASHINGTON — Debt ceiling negotiators think they’ve hit on a solution to address the debt ceiling impasse and the public’s unwillingness to let go of benefits such as Medicare and Social Security that have been earned over a lifetime of work: Create a new Congress.
This “Super Congress,” composed of members of both chambers and both parties, isn’t mentioned anywhere in the Constitution, but would be granted extraordinary new powers. Under a plan put forth by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his counterpart Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), legislation to lift the debt ceiling would be accompanied by the creation of a 12-member panel made up of 12 lawmakers — six from each chamber and six from each party.

Legislation approved by the Super Congress — which some on Capitol Hill are calling the “super committee” — would then be fast-tracked through both chambers, where it couldn’t be amended by simple, regular lawmakers, who’d have the ability only to cast an up or down vote. With the weight of both leaderships behind it, a product originated by the Super Congress would have a strong chance of moving through the little Congress and quickly becoming law. A Super Congress would be less accountable than the system that exists today, and would find it easier to strip the public of popular benefits. Negotiators are currently considering cutting the mortgage deduction and tax credits for retirement savings, for instance, extremely popular policies that would be difficult to slice up using the traditional legislative process.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has made a Super Congress a central part of his last-minute proposal, multiple news reports and people familiar with his plan say. A picture of Boehner’s proposal began to come into focus Saturday evening: The debt ceiling would be raised for a short-term period and coupled with an equal dollar figure of cuts, somewhere in the vicinity of a trillion dollars over ten years. A second increase in the debt ceiling would be tied to the creation of a Super Congress that would be required to find a minimum amount of spending cuts. Because the elevated panel would need at least one Democratic vote, its plan would presumably include at least some revenue, though if it’s anything like the deals on the table today, it would likely be heavily slanted toward spending cuts. Or, as Obama said of the deal he was offering Republicans before Boehner walked out, “If it was unbalanced, it was unbalanced in the direction of not enough revenue.”

Boehner (R-Ohio), Eric Cantor(R-Virginia) and Global Governance: TransAtlantic Policy Network
Agenda: strengthen the institutional structure for ongoing transatlantic political dialogue, building on the evolving Transatlantic Legislators Dialogue (TLD) between Members of the European Parliament and the US Congress, possibly into a Transatlantic Assembly.

Global Governance 2025

Global governance — the collective management of common problems at the international level — is at a critical juncture, according to a new report issued jointly by the ODNI’s National Intelligence Council (NIC) and the European Union’s Institute for Security Studies (EUISS). The report, Global Governance 2025 — a follow-on to the NIC’s 2008 report, Global Trends 2025—posits that the growing number of issues on the international agenda, and their complexity, is outpacing the ability of international organizations and national governments to address these challenges.

More information can be found on the Atlantic Council‘s web site. http://www.acus.org/content/global-governance-2025-0

Click here to view the press release announcing the report.

NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE COUNCIL AND EUROPEAN UNION’S INSTITUTE FOR SECURITY STUDIES RELEASE REPORT ON PROSPECTS FOR GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

Global governance—the collective management of common problems at the international level—is at a critical juncture, according to a new report released today, issued jointly by the ODNI’s National Intelligence Council (NIC) and the European Union’s Institute for Security Studies (EUISS). The report,

Global Governance 2025—a follow-on to the NIC’s 2008 report, Global Trends 2025—posits that the growing number of issues on the international agenda, and their complexity, is outpacing the ability of international organizations and national governments to address these challenges. The report concludes that three effects of rapid globalization are driving demands for more effective global governance: 1) economic interdependence; 2) the interconnected nature of the challenges on the international agenda; and 3) interwoven domestic and foreign challenges.

A full copy of the report is available online at: http://www.dni.gov/nic/NIC_home.html

The Transatlantic Strategy Forum (TSF)

Although the US and EU collaborate through an increasing number of policy dialogues, none of these have contributed substantially to a shared transatlantic vision of the future strategic challenges they both face. The publication of “Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World” by the US National Intelligence Council presents an opportunity to shape an in-depth discussion of the fundamental challenges confronting the US and EU. Moreover, during 2009 and 2010, new administrations are taking office in both Washington and Brussels, and the various EU Council Presidencies are enthusiastic to strengthen transatlantic relations.

Taking advantage of these opportunities, the TSF was launched in February 2009 through a joint effort of the Atlantic Council of the United States and the Transatlantic Policy Network; other founding partners now include Chatham House, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik (DGAP). Aiming to promote an in-depth discussion of the fundamental global challenges jointly facing the US and EU, it aims to address five primary themes set out below.

Security (including terrorism)
Globalisation – its economic, financial and social implications
Energy and the environment
Demography and immigration
Global governance

The possible issues to be included for discussion under each theme are listed below.

As a result of this pilot project, it is hoped that the US and European governments, along with the EU institutions and NATO, will jointly undertake strategic assessments of the future, identifying appropriate policy responses together.

Agenda

As indicated in its 10-point, 10-year Action Plan for Strengthening Transatlantic Partnership, TPN’s agenda for the coming years is to promote and support actions to complete a transatlantic market linked to a strengthened political and security relationship adapted to the needs of the 21st century. To accomplish this, TPN believes that the EU and US will need to adapt the existing transatlantic institutional framework to take account of the evolution of our common purposes and priorities, allowing issues to drive the framework, rather than the other way around.

TPN has proposed, with support from Resolutions taken by the European Parliament and the US House of Representatives, that EU and US leaders come to agreement on the major elements of a new, formal “Transatlantic Partnership Agreement.” Such an agreement would build on the 1995 New Transatlantic Agenda and reflect proposals made in TPN’s Strategy to Strengthen Transatlantic Partnership. As part of this process, TPN would like EU and US leaders to:

• focus the annual EU-US summit process to provide strategic direction and impetus to the transatlantic partnership, and develop communications with the NATO summit process as well

• institute regular informal EU-US consultation at ministerial level in advance of EU-US summits, supported by permanent joint policy planning

• strengthen the institutional structure for ongoing transatlantic political dialogue, building on the evolving Transatlantic Legislators Dialogue (TLD) between Members of the European Parliament and the US Congress, possibly into a Transatlantic Assembly.

All members have been encouraged to participate in a process that has gathered steady momentum in the past few years, and is increasingly focused on global challenges facing the transatlantic partners. Task Force meetings in Europe and the US discuss ideas and put forward proposals for adding political and economic substance to the Transatlantic Partnership while also dealing with the substantive issues and problems associated with cooperation between the EU and NATO.

As before, this internal debate is enriched by research and background papers produced by the academic institutions cooperating with TPN.

TPN will continue to offer its recommendations of how to strengthen Transatlantic Partnership in the years ahead, in ways that will satisfy the political, economic and security needs of both sides.

Despite volcanic ash threatening the viability of the whole meeting – European participants only got the green light to travel the Wednesday before – the following is the programme as put together by TPN as its contributio for Transatlantic Week.
After opening statements from the House Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer, House Minority Leader, John Boehner, and the President of the EP, Jerzy Buzek, a plenary session was held on the great transformation, adapting to the global shift of political and economic power. Following the plenary session, the President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, spoke at a reception to which all participants involved in the activities of the Transatlantic Week were invited
A series of roundtable discussions was then organised to discuss the near and medium term policy implications of long-term trends and resulting global challenges, and their outcomes.

At each roundtable, three or four speakers provided short opening remarks before opening the floor for discussion. These discussions stimulated debate between US and EU policymakers and opinion leaders, with the aim of producing a number of policy options for their future consideration. A rapporteur recorded key recommendations raised in the debate in a non-attributed summary.
A closing session for creative thinking was organised on the early Wednesday afternoon at which rapporteurs from each of the roundtables presented their summaries to highlight some of the event’s key themes. The summaries have been posted on the Internet.

Click here to download the programme “The Great Transformation – Adapting to the Global Shift of Economic and Political Power”

Mapping the Economic and Financial Future

July 06, 2011
A new Atlantic Council report summarizes two years’ worth of rich and deep discussions from our “Mapping the Economic and Financial Future” speakers’ forum.