US Republicans name anti-taxers to debt panel

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama's Republican critics in Congress named Wednesday tax-hike foes including a "Tea Party" ally to a new "supercommittee" where the next bitter US debt battles will play out.

As with Democratic choices announced late Tuesday, the picks reflected a need for expertise in tax, trade, and health care programs, as well as sharp partisan elbows with the campaign to the November 2012 elections heating up.

Republican leaders focused on their party's priorities -- deep cuts to the social safety net and opposition to tax hikes sought by Obama -- but avoided language explicitly dooming a compromise before the committee even meets.

"The two parties have fundamental differences about government and its proper role in our society," said Republican House Speaker John Boehner, who called the committee an "opportunity" for a spirited debate.

"We cannot dig ourselves out of this situation by nibbling around the edges," said Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who urged the panel to "put the interests of all Americans ahead of any one political party."

The 12-member panel, created by a recent law to stave off a US debt default, must find a compromise for reining in runaway US budget deficits by at least $1.2 trillion dollars over ten years -- a tall order in polarized Washington.

If the committee fails to make formal recommendations by late November, or Congress fails to approve them by late December, that would trigger painful automatic reductions of $1.2 trillion to programs cherished by both sides.

Those possible cuts to military and health care programs were designed to compel a compromise, which would need majority approval on the committee and would enjoy fast-track consideration by the whole congress.

McConnell appointed Republican Senators Jon Kyl, Pat Toomey, and Rob Portman to the panel, while Boehner named Republican Representatives Dave Camp and Fred Upton to the panel, with Jeb Hensarling as a co-chairman.

Kyl, who is not seeking reelection in November 2012, is the number-two Senate Republican and represented McConnell at failed debt-reduction talks with Vice President Joe Biden earlier this year.

Portman is in his first term as senator but has decades of experience in public service, including stints as then-president George W. Bush's US Trade Representative and White House budget chief.

Toomey, a former Wall Street executive close to the archconservative "Tea Party" movement, serves on the Senate Budget, Banking, and Commerce Committees and argued during the just-finished battle over the US debt-limit that failure to approve an increase would not lead to a default.

Camp chairs the House Ways and Means Committee that has oversight over taxes and trade, Upton leads the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Hensarling is a member of the House Republican leadership.

All six have signed a pledge, crafted by the fiercely anti-tax Americans for Tax Reform pressure group, to vote against and oppose tax increases.

But Republican leaders did not explicitly shut the door to some sort of bargain on tax reform -- even though key party members have said in the past that any revenue increase must be offset by reductions elsewhere.

McConnell called for "reforming entitlement programs that are the biggest drivers of our debt, and reforming the tax code in a way that makes us more competitive and leads to more American jobs."

"The goal is to achieve a result that convinces Americans and the world that we're committed as a nation to prosperity for all our citizens," he said in the wake of America's historic loss of its top-notch debt rating.

Recent public opinion polls show Americans worry far more about 9.1 percent unemployment than the deficit, and largely favor Obama's call for raising taxes on the rich and wealthy corporations in tandem with spending cuts.

"The American people overwhelmingly support the balanced approach that the president supports," said Obama spokesman Jay Carney.

"We need to take action collectively to come together, Democrats and Republicans, to further reduce our deficits and get our long-term debt under control," he said.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011