Murkowski Responds to Super Committee Result
“Every Day We Don’t Develop A Plan for the Future, the Deficit Grows Steeper Along With the Stakes”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Lisa Murkowski today had the following reaction to the news that the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction will not reach an agreement:
“Americans expected and deserved a productive outcome. The ‘Super Committee’ failed to meet its deadline, not from a lack of trying, and this failure doesn’t mean the debate is over. It means we must continue our efforts. If anything, we must double down on our efforts to resolve this issue through a combination of spending cuts, entitlement reform, structural changes in the federal budget process and an overhaul of our tax code.
“The only way to rebuild confidence -- among Americans and the international community – is simply to govern. We should not and cannot let this impasse derail our efforts.
“The finger-pointing has already begun, as to who wasn’t willing to compromise or propose solutions. But as I heard in four town halls over the past month on the economy, we passed the blame game exit miles ago. Americans don’t care about whose fault it is; they just expect us to fix it, and put our country on a sustainable course.
“Every day we don’t develop a plan for the future, the deficit grows steeper along with the stakes. We need to show the country and the international financial markets that we are serious about sacrifice, compromise and fiscal certainty. Problems still loom ahead of us – the research and development tax credit, an AMT patch, the ‘doc fix,’ and a variety of tax provisions that are set to expire soon, like the marriage tax penalty. We cannot postpone the inevitable. We need to come together and make tough decisions ahead that are inescapable.”
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