In a Thursday letter to members of the joint deficit Super Committee, 11 Democratic senators say the powerful panel of House Democrats and Republicans must consider their recommendations’ impact on job creation, and should result, at a minimum in no net job loss.
“[W]e request that the Select Committee adopt two principles: first, that each proposed recommendation be analyzed by the Congressional Budget Office to estimate its impact on employment,” the letter reads. “Second, the Committee should adopt a “First Do No Harm” standard — at a minimum its recommendations should not result in any net job loss and, ideally that they maximize new job creation while meeting the deficit reduction goals.”
This effort was organized by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR).
The idea here is to require CBO to analyze the Super Committee bill’s impact on employment — not just budget deficits. The goal is for members to know, and for journalists to report, not just that the legislation reduces deficits by some trillions of dollars, but that it might cost a huge number of jobs. If that’s the story, then they’ll be more amenable to considering direct job creation measures or at the very least finding deficit savings that don’t lead directly to furloughs and layoffs.
So far, members of the committee have declined to comment on this idea. You can read the full letter here.
Senate Dems Say Super Committee Bill Must Not Cost Jobs
Brian Beutler
Brian Beutler is TPM's senior congressional reporter. Since 2009, he's led coverage of health care reform, Wall Street reform, taxes, the GOP budget, the government shutdown fight, and the debt limit fight. He can be reached at brian@talkingpointsmemo.com.
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