On Nov. 21, the deficit super committee tasked with cutting the deficit by more than $1 trillion abandoned its goals. B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

B’nai B’rith International is disappointed that the congressional deficit super committee failed to reach a balanced deficit agreement. Two days in advance of its deadline, the committee officially disbanded.

The potential impact of automatic cuts that will now go forward—cuts that were designed to be a painful incentive for the super committee to propose an alternative—is concerning.   

The super committee had the potential to create balanced deficit reduction, rather than the automatic deficit package (“sequester”) that does not include any new revenue.  However, B’nai B’rith agrees that no deal is better than reaching a bad deal which cuts benefits earned by older adults over a lifetime and subjects the next generation to the prospect of poverty as they age.  There were certainly proposals considered by the super committee that would have been disastrous for the nation’s most vulnerable—particularly senior citizens on fixed incomes.

By design, there is still time for Congress to come up with a plan to reduce the deficit before draconian cuts are enacted, starting in January of 2013.  B’nai B’rith certainly hopes that there is time for a balanced approach to offset the need for those automatic cuts.  We are also concerned about the impact on health care access for seniors because cuts to Medicare providers will be instituted before other cuts.   

B’nai B’rith urges Congress to pursue balanced agreements that can avoid the drastic, automatic cuts-only approach to Americans in need.