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Deficit groups demand supercommittee secrets
A coalition of good-government groups on Monday demanded that the president and congressional leaders reveal all the details of the various secret deficit negotiations that have taken place this year, including those of the failed supercommittee.
The groups wrote to President Obama, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), saying that making secret offers and counteroffers will help the country reach a deficit deal eventually.
“The failure of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to achieve agreement does not end the important work to tame our deficit and debt. In that spirit, we believe it is time for the American public to see the Committee’s final work products as well as the proposals developed during Vice President Biden’s deficit reduction talks over the summer. We urge you to release them online to the public,” the letter states.
All three efforts stumbled over Democratic demands for large tax increases and a Republican refusal to consider much revenue other than that generated by fostering economic growth.
The groups that signed the letter were Taxpayers for Common Sense, the Project on Government Oversight, the Center for Responsive Politics, the Heartland Institute, the Sunlight Foundation, Citizens Against Government Waste, and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
The deficit hawk community has been somewhat divided on the issue of secrecy, with some hawks arguing that secrecy is necessary to preserve the flexibility needed to allow an eventual compromise.
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