Statement from Co-Chairs of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction

WASHINGTON– Today, the Co-Chairs of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, Representative Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) and Senator Patty Murray, released the following statement.

"After months of hard work and intense deliberations, we have come to the conclusion today that it will not be possible to make any bipartisan agreement available to the public before the committee’s deadline.

"Despite our inability to bridge the committee's significant differences, we end this process united in our belief that the nation's fiscal crisis must be addressed and that we cannot leave it for the next generation to solve. We remain hopeful that Congress can build on this committee’s work and can find a way to tackle this issue in a way that works for the American people and our economy.

"We are deeply disappointed that we have been unable to come to a bipartisan deficit reduction agreement, but as we approach the uniquely American holiday of Thanksgiving, we want to express our appreciation to every member of this committee, each of whom came into the process committed to achieving a solution that has eluded many groups before us. Most importantly, we want to thank the American people for sharing thoughts and ideas and for providing support and good will as we worked to accomplish this difficult task.

"We would also like to thank our committee staff, in particular Staff Director Mark Prater and Deputy Staff Director Sarah Kuehl, as well as each committee member's staff for the tremendous work they contributed to this effort. We would also like to express our sincere gratitude to Dr. Douglas Elmendorf and Mr. Thomas Barthold and their teams at the Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation, respectively, for the technical support they provided to the committee and its members."

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TEXT CREDIT: hensarling.house.gov Washington, DC. Office. 129 Cannon HOB. Washington, DC 20515. Phone: 202-225-3484/ Fax: 202-226-4888

IMAGE CREDIT: HouseConference

Newt Gingrich Was Right On The 'Super Committee' VIDEO TEXT

In the summer of 2011, the Washington establishment pinned its hopes on a so-called 'Super Committee' of 12 Congressmen and Senators to solve America's deficit and spending problems. The Committee was established with a law that imposed mandatory cuts to defense and other programs as a threat to force action.

At the time, Newt Gingrich was alone in calling this "Super Committee" what it was: "a truly dumb idea." Today, Newt 2012 released a new web video, with clips from the August 11th presidential debate in Iowa, where Newt was the leading critic of the "Super Committee" and predicted its failure.

We need a president with the experience of balancing the federal budget and reforming government if we are going to get our fiscal house in order. That's Newt.

Text Transcript of Newt's quotes in the video:

"I think this Super Committee is about as dumb an idea as Washington has come up with in my lifetime."

"I used to run the House of Representatives, I have some general notion of these things. The idea that 523 senators and congressman are going to sit around for 4 months while 12 brilliant people -- mostly picked for political reasons -- are going to sit in some room and brilliantly come up with $1 trillion, or force us to choose between gutting our military and accepting a tax increase is irrational."

"They're going to walk in just before Thanksgiving and say 'Alright, we can shoot you in the head or cut off your right leg, which do you prefer?'"

"What they oughta do is scrap the committee right now, recognize it's a dumb idea, go back to regular legislative business, assign every subcommittee the task of finding savings, do it out in the open through regular legislative order, and get rid of this secret phony business."

TEXT CREDIT: Newt Gingrich 2012 Presidential Election Candidate Headquarters Phone: (678) 973-2306 P.O. Box 550769, Atlanta, GA 30355

VIDEO and IMAGE CREDIT: ngingrich