The Columbus Dispatch...
Portman to help chart country’s debt course
By  Jessica Wehrman
Thursday August 11, 2011 

WASHINGTON — Two days after expressing his willingness to serve, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman was tapped yesterday as one of three Senate Republicans on the “supercommittee” tasked with reducing the federal deficit by $1.5 trillion. 

Portman, former head of the federal Office of Management and Budget, joins Jon Kyl of Arizona and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania on the 12-member panel, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell announced. 

“I am honored to answer the call to serve on the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction and will work hard to ensure that meaningful spending cuts are made to reduce our deficits, change the trajectory of Washington’s record high debt, and to encourage economic growth and job creation,” Portman said in a statement. 

But the reaction from liberal ProgressOhio was: “The great (for Republicans) thing about Rob Portman is that he was Bush’s budget director from 2006 to 2007. Plus, he voted for both of Bush’s tax cuts and for Bush’s invasion of Iraq. When Rob Portman talks about fiscal nightmares, he knows exactly what he’s talking about because he helped more than most to create the one we’re in.” 

The bipartisan panel is to be made up of three members from each party from each house of Congress. The Senate Republican announcement came the same day that House Speaker John Boehner, R-West Chester, named Republican Reps. Dave Camp and Fred Upton, both of Michigan, and Jeb Hensarling of Texas to the committee. 

Senate Democrats selected for the committee are Patty Murray of Washington, Max Baucus of Montana and John Kerry of Massachusetts. House Democrats have until Tuesday to pick their three members. 

The panel was created as part of an agreement reached to raise the $14.29 trillion debt ceiling last week. It’s the second stage of a two-part plan to dramatically cut spending. 

In the first stage last week, Congress agreed to cut spending by $917 billion over 10 years and increase the debt ceiling by $900 billion. 

Stage two is where Portman will play a role: If the “supercommittee” produces legislation that achieves $1.2 trillion or greater in savings and Congress passes that legislation, President Barack Obama then will be able to further request a debt-limit increase of an equal amount up to $1.5 trillion. 

By and large, the group represents lawmakers known more for legislating than political flame-throwing. Camp is the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee; Upton is the chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Hensarling is chair of the House Republican Conference. The three Senate Democrats also have worked on bipartisan issues. 

“My main criteria for selecting members was to identify serious, constructive senators who are interested in achieving a result that helps to get our nation’s fiscal house in order,” McConnell said. 

Still, all six Republicans on the committee have signaled publicly that they would not endorse raising taxes; all have signed Americans for Tax Reform’s pledge not to increase taxes. 

Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, called the group an ideological “mixed bag,” but he said all are “reliables.” 

“They’re going to listen to the leadership,” he said. “They’re not going to go off reservation because there will be major consequences if they do for their own careers … this is not a pro forma committee that is simply going to meet and harangue one another. The leadership in both houses and both parties believe they can rely on these individuals to reflect the caucus and the leadership.”& amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; lt; /p> 

White House spokesman Jay Carney said, “The president believes the committee needs to take its work seriously ... and to come together around a series of proposals that can get bipartisan support, get through Congress in a fast-track way, to ensure that we have additional deficit reduction.” 

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, applauded Portman’s selection. 

“Rob has shown a willingness to find common ground by looking at both tax reform and spending cuts in order to reduce the deficit,” he said. “It’s time to stop the bickering and put the country first to find a balanced approach to deficit reduction that addresses our top priorities: restoring the economy and putting Ohioans back to work.” 

Panel members must pass their cost-cutting legislation by Nov. 23. Under the agreement reached last week, both chambers of Congress must vote on the legislation by Dec. 23. If either the committee or Congress fails to meet the deadline, the law requires automatic spending cuts totaling $1.2 trillion starting in 2013. 

In a meeting with the Dispatch editorial board earlier this week, Portman signaled that while the committee’s decisions could be tough and unpopular, the automatic cuts might be harder to swallow. He said about half of those cuts would come from the defense budget, “which would be very bad for national defense.” 

Still he said, “Defense needs to be on the table. There are savings that need to be found at the Pentagon, but that would be an enormously difficult task for them to downsize (by more than $500 billion) that quickly.” 

He also said while tax increases should not be part of the fix, he was not opposed to raising revenue by getting rid of tax “preferences,” including certain loopholes, credits, deductions and exclusions. Some conservatives see eliminating them as back-door tax hikes. 

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