GOP signals opposition to jobs supercommittee

House Republicans are unlikely to support a Democratic plan to create a congressional supercommittee tasked with helping to spur U.S. job creation, seeing the proposal as leading to costly and ineffective jobs programs.

Mirroring the debt-deal supercommittee recently created to find at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction, the jobs panel is the brainchild of House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson (Conn.), who could introduce the bill for its creation as early as this week.

His proposal is expected to set up a 12-member committee made up of House and Senate members, and is seen as an answer to Democrats' complaints that Republicans have failed to advance a job-creation agenda.

But Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), indicated to The Hill on Wednesday that Republicans would likely resist this bill, and see it as a way to argue for more costly government jobs programs that Republicans have opposed.

"Getting our deficit and debt under control is one of the most important things we need to do to get our economy growing and creating jobs again, and that is the goal of the joint committee," Steel said, referring to the debt committee. "Rep. Larson's proposal sounds like a scheme for more of the same failed 'stimulus' government spending."

Republican opposition to Larson's bill has the potential to make for a continuation of tense partisan debate over the economy once members return from their August break. Several Democrats are already lamenting the debt-ceiling agreement for failing to require any immediate tax increases and are hoping the debt supercommittee can reach some agreement on another round of deficit cuts that includes some new tax revenue.

That failure to include new tax revenues was part of the reason why Democrats split in the final House vote: Ninety-five Democrats voted for it and 95 voted against it.

The more Republicans have moved to cut spending, the more Democrats have called on them to drop the issue and focus on job creation, and Larson's proposal appears to be an attempt to put deficit reduction and job creation on an equal footing.

In turn, Republicans have argued that cutting federal spending is a jobs program because the skyrocketing federal debt creates business uncertainty and led to the Standard & Poor's debt-rating downgrade earlier in the month.

Boehner himself argued on Wednesday that the House has already approved bills to expand U.S. energy production and reduce the federal debt burden, although many of those measures have simply stalled in the Senate.

"The House has led, but unfortunately we cannot act alone," Boehner said. "Too many House-passed jobs bills remain stalled in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and we continue to urge our colleagues in the Senate to act."

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