Published on November 23, 2011 at 3:47 AM
The Boston Globe: Behind The 'Super' Failure: A Deficit Of Political Will
The failure of the deficit super committee is a profound disappointment, a victory for the politics of litmus tests and pressure groups. It's enough to make voters want to throw the bums out, except that very impulse -; the desire to "send a message" by electing candidates who feed off voter anger -; may be partly responsible for the failure. Clearly, members of Congress were more fearful of talk-radio attacks and upsetting key interest groups than of allowing serious national problems to fester (11/22).
The Washington Post: Republican Obstinacy Doomed The Super Committee
Yes, no deal is almost certainly better than a bad deal. The automatic cuts will be painful, but they don't touch entitlements -; and thus don't preempt the serious discussion we need to have about making sure that Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are sustainable (Eugene Robinson, 11/21).
The Wall Street Journal: Thank You, Grover Norquist
Of course it would have been preferable if the two sides had come together now to cut spending, reform the tax code and remake Medicare. Preferable, but implausible (11/22).
 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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