House Democrats on Tuesday rejected Republicans’ proposal for another supercommittee to address the ongoing government shutdown and threat of debt default.
The supercommittee would include members of both chambers and both parties, and would be similar to the 2011 supercommittee that failed and ultimately led to automatic budget cuts known as sequestration.
Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Cali.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said that a supercommittee was unecessary for solving the current fiscal impasse.
“We don’t need a supercommittee,” he said at a Capitol Hill press conference. “We don’t need a sequester to tell us how to vote.”
Becerra placed blame on the Tea Party, and called on House Republicans to end the shutdown.
“Stop letting the Tea Party tail wag the elephant,” he said at the conference. “Get up in the morning and do what you’re paid to do.”
Update: Becerra sat on the failed supercommittee and dissed the idea of forming another.
“Not again, not again,” he said of the supercommittee. “Having served as a member of the so-called supercommittee, there was nothing super about it.”
