Wildcards in the Super Committee

Here is an interesting take on latest from the Super Committee by Greg Valliere, Chief Political Strategist of the Potomac Research Group.

LOWERED EXPECTATIONS:  Just as European leaders are preparing the markets for a disappointment today (let’s meet again on Nov. 7-8 !!), congressional leaders also are beginning to scale back expectations for the deficit supercommittee.  Roll Call’s web site reports this morning that there was a “heated” closed door meeting yesterday, as panel members appear to be bogged down — as usual — on tax increases.  The mantra on Capitol Hill for the past week has been that congressional leaders will have to get involved, but it’s not helpful when Harry Reid insists on $1 trillion in new revenues; that’s not gonna happen.

SUPERCOMMITTEE WILD CARDS:  There are many; here are just three —

1. The Congressional Budget Office will have to score any proposed cuts, and that will take days or weeks, which means the panel may have to present its recommendations well before the Nov. 23 deadline.  Good luck with that. 
2. Could the supercommittee ask for an extension, perhaps stretching into spring?  (Getting “incompletes” always worked for us in college.)
3. Could hundreds of billions in savings be assumed from troop drawdowns from Afghanistan and Iraq?  An accounting gimmick, to be sure; how would the credit rating agencies react to that one?