Will the Conference Committee tasked with hammering out an agreement on extending the payroll tax cut end up as a “Super Committee 2.0”?
The question was posed by Felicia Sonmez in the Washington Post’s “2Chambers” blog — and she has a point. Many of the players are the same (see below) and so is the task: find agreement on hundreds of billions in “pay-fors.”
The Payroll Tax Cut Conference Committee must find savings or cuts to finance extending the payroll tax cut, unemployment benefits and the “doc fix,” to stave off almost 30% automatic cuts to physicians paid by Medicare. The overall package is expected to require approximately $170 billion.
POPVOX users have some ideas on where those savings could come from, based on input on proposals to the original Super Committee (the now-defunct Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction.) The POPVOX tech and design team ran the numbers and created this infographic showing which of proposed deficit reduction measures garnered the greatest bipartisan support from POPVOX users. Consider it a “menu” as conference members return to the table on February 1 and attempt to reach agreement before their February 29 deadline.
The infographic is the result of great work by our design and tech team: CTO Josh Tauberer analyzed the data while William Donnell and Shane Aday of Sodium Halogen made it beautiful and functional.
Members of the Payroll Tax Conference Committee
Senate Democrats: Max Baucus*, Jack Reed, Ben Cardin, Bob Casey
House Republicans: Dave Camp*, Nan Hayworth, Tom Price, Renee Ellmers, Kevin Brady, Fred Upton*, Tom Reed, Greg Walden,
Senate Republicans: Jon Kyl* John Barrasso, Mike Crapo
House Democrats: Xavier Becerra*, Sander Levin, Allyson Schwartz, Chris Van Hollen*, Henry Waxman
*Also served on the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction (Super Committee)
