Bipartisan debt panel “supercommittee” focuses on spending cuts and tax reform

As a result of this summer’s debt ceiling debate and subsequent downgrade of the U.S. credit rating by S&P, politicians in Washington have scurried to assemble a debt panel supercommittee, officially called the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. On both sides of the aisle, there are calls for a focus on reducing the overall cost of entitlement programs and reforming our complex tax code. For the most part, people are in agreement that our tax laws are confusing, convoluted, redundant, and a burden on job creators. The United States has the highest corporate income tax rate in the world and a Social Security system that, without reform, is on a collision course with bankruptcy.

Many are hopeful that the debt panel will work on eliminating tax loopholes and superfluous regulations, in addition to recommending spending cuts. The supercommittee certainly has a big task on their hands, to cut spending so our country can get back on sound financial footing. President Obama’s proposed American Jobs Act, if passed into law, would put the committee in a position of having to consider the additional cost of that legislation as well (currently estimated at $447 billion).

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