Dem lawmaker would be fine with supercommittee failure, automatic cuts

A Democratic legislator said it would be fine with him if the supercommittee failed to reach agreement and steep, automatic cuts to domestic and defense spending happened.

"I hope that they cannot reach an agreement," Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said, according to Capital New York.

Some Democrats have suggested that they might have the upper hand in the negotiations because of the rare opportunity for deep reductions in defense spending — something some Democrats have wished for before. 

Nadler said there should be significant cuts to military spending.

"I think we should have large military cuts," Nadler added. "Why do we need, how many troops — 60, 70,000 troops — still in Germany? Why do we need troops in half the places they're at? We're still worried about Soviet tank armors invading Western Europe? It's ridiculous."

The supercommittee is nearing its Thanksgiving deadline to come up with a deficit-reduction proposal. As part of the deal to raise the federal debt ceiling that President Obama made with Republicans in August, the panel is charged with finding at least $1.2 trillion in deficit savings. If the panel is not able to, an automatic trigger of $1.2 trillion in cuts occurs — half of the $1.2 trillion would be cut from federal domestic spending and half from defense spending.

The automatic cuts were designed as a penalty that would force the panel to negotiate a deal.

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