McConnell Names Senate GOP Debt Committee Members. ADDED: Boehner Announces His Picks As Well

Toomey, Portman and Kyl.

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell Wednesday announced his appointments to the 12-member Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction tasked with reducing the deficit by $1.5 trillion more than the cuts already identified in the Budget Control Act. McConnell appointed Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), and Rob Portman (R-Ohio).

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“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. “That means reforming entitlement programs that are the biggest drivers of our debt, and reforming the tax code in a way that makes us more competitive and leads to more American jobs. The goal is to achieve a result that convinces Americans and the world that we’re committed as a nation to prosperity for all our citizens.”

That's a pretty strong and serious line up (especially compared to the clowns like Murray and Kerry that Reid named). My only concern and it's not based on record is Kyl. Yeah, he's a strong as they come but...he's retiring. I'm not a fan of putting someone on this who doesn't a have a good dose of fear of what crossing the line would mean.

Here are the House picks.

Boehner has tapped House Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling (Texas), House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) to serve on the bipartisan panel.

No Paul Ryan? No tea party freshman? Hmmmm. (Ryan said he didn't want to be on it to focus on Budget Committee work).

GOP picks mean bad news for defense?

posted by DrewM. at 12:02 PM

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