Where We Live: Did The Supercommittee Fail?

So, the “super committee” failed to reach a deficit-reduction plan - now, “automatic” cuts loom.

While this is undeniably true - the impact of the committee’s “failure” can be read many ways: One is that it actually helped to divert attention away from the debt ceiling battle in Congress until after the 2012 election.

Another is that it’s thrown political ideologies into a disorienting tailspin as elections approach: Democrats - like those in Connecticut - are forced to defend both the social programs that make up half of the automatic cuts...as well as defense spending, where so many of the state’s jobs reside.

Republicans - who don’t like the idea of government spending money - are forced to defend the defense budget - while being hamstrung by “pledges” to oppose any and all tax cuts.

For the rest of us - not running for re-election - we rightly ask: What does this mean for me?

We’ll discuss the impact of the super committee failure on both social programs and the defense industry of Connecticut. Coming up, we’ll also preview a Yale panel discussion called “The Volatility Economy: Wall Street, Main Street and the Middle Class.”