Podesta Group

Members tapped by their respective leaders to serve on the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, commonly referred to as the Super Committee, understand their mission: overcome significant structural hurdles in order to produce more than $1.2 trillion in savings over the next decade. They also understand and appreciate the consequences of failure better than most.

Three challenges have emerged as the most significant for Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) and the other 10 members of the Super Committee. These include:

Severe time constraints. Time was never an ally of the Super Committee. The August work period stalled organization, but members maintained an aggressive schedule in September. The committee’s recommendations are due in less than nine weeks, but provisions must be scored by the Congressional Budget Office prior to being approved. This shifts the real deadline for most provisions to late October or early November—which is only four to five weeks away. The clock is ticking.

The need for bipartisan consensus. The Super Committee’s six-six bipartisan construction means that any recommendations must be adopted by bipartisan consensus. This presents major challenges since members could face significant pushback from their respective parties if they break away to adopt unpopular policy positions. While this will likely limit any grand bargain, Super Committee members will likely attempt to use the Super Committee to set the stage for broader reforms in the coming years.

Additional budget headroom for major investments. Whether the Super Committee will pay for the president’s jobs plan has been the focus of considerable debate and discussion, but there are other capital intensive programs, such as the surface transportation and farm bills, that must be funded in the coming decade. It’s still unclear if the committee will attempt to find budget headroom to fund these programs — or punt to deal with these questions at a later time. As most politicians know, failure to fix potholes is one of the easiest ways to further exacerbate voter frustrations.

The world won’t have to wait much longer to know if the Super Committee intends to go big, barely clear the $1.2 trillion hurdle, or stumble under the burden on the way to the finish line. Whatever the outcome, the 12 members of the Super Committee know there are real consequences of failure for all of us, including sequestration, the threat of further degradation to our nation’s credit rating, and a validation of the political dysfunction that concerns most credit rating agencies.