Greg Sargent: "Today in supercommittee follies"

Greg Sargent:

The likelihood is mounting that the supercommittee will fail, leading to a great deal of handwringing in both parties about all the public blame that will be heaped on the supercommittee if they fail to reach a deal.

So let’s be really clear. Democrats have agreed to deep cuts in Medicare in exchange for the tax hikes that most fiscal experts agree are absolutely necessary to fix the deficit. The Dem offer is well to the right of previous bipartisan proposals. But Republicans have said No, insisting that the only revenue increases they can stomach will come from closing loopholes.

If the supercommittee fails, brace yourself for a whole bunch of bogus false-equivalence reporting to the effect that both sides, or the generic “Congress,” are to blame.