SUBSCRIBE NOW WELCOME BACK. Do you want to continue reading where you left off? New Republic subscribers can pick up where they left off no matter which device they were previously using. SUBSCRIBE NOW

Go Home Influential Me

TIMOTHY NOAH NOVEMBER 7, 2011

Influential Me

BY TIMOTHY NOAH

Never in my life have I written anything that made so little impression on the reading public as my last TRB column ("Trigger Happy"), wherein I explained that it doesn't matter that the super committee won't meet its eve-of-Thanksgiving deadline to find $1.2 trillion in budget cuts and/or tax increases. (I include in that calculus the three years I spent writing for and eventually editing Highlights, my high school newspaper, 1973-1976.) Indeed, I wrote in my column, blowing the deadline would likely be best for all concerned. Let me repeat that. Forget about the super committee deadline. Get on with your life and worry about the Euro instead.

I'm not going to repeat all the arguments why it doesn't matter, because I'm not that kind of blogger. 

Why so little impact? (Except, of course, on the column's 11 online commenters, who have my undying gratitude.) Why has no one even bothered to argue that I'm wrong? I can only assume that the narrative of high drama surrounding the super committee is one that nobody except actual living, breathing budget experts (a couple of whom I interviewed before writing) can possibly resist. It's just too much fun to fear the sequestration boogeyman. I actually heard one of the experts I talked to quoted on NPR saying there was no way the committee would meet its deadline. They cut him off before he went on to say (I assume, since he said it to me) that it doesn't matter. And I thought NPR was supposed to be left wing!

Look, it isn't often that a looming national problem can be ignored with such impunity. Take advantage of this opportunity, because I don't know when the next one will come along.

Update: Okay, Robert Borosage said something in the same general zone today in Salon:

http://news.salon.com/2011/11/07/defeat_the_super_committee/singleton/

But why did it take almost two weeks?

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

Show all 15 comments

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

15 comments

Welcome back, Timothy. Did you finish your book?

- liberalref

November 7, 2011 at 12:13pm

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

Correct, the biggest thing we have to fear from the Committee is... Fear itself. Given that the Republicans won't agree to ANY tax increase of any kind no matter how well deserved -- any so-called "compromise" coming out of the Committee trying to avoid the pre-negotiated "catastrophe" will be worse than the "catastrophe" itself. And the media (including NPR, sigh) is largely ignoring this because it's no fun. It's fun to run around like chicken-little saying the sky is about to fall. It's no fun to have Fox-News accusing you of bias, so I'm sure there's at least a little pressure to echo one or two Fox-News talking points about disaster. I even heard NPR echoing the Cain "high-tech lynching" phrase this morning. So that's why you're being ignored. But you should keep saying it anyway. It took MONTHS for Woodward and Bernstein to be taken seriously over Watergate. Eventually you could look as good as they did.

- AllanL5

November 7, 2011 at 12:31pm

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

Thanks, liberal ref. Not quite done, but very, very close. And now I have to finish because it's on Amazon.

- Timothy Noah

November 7, 2011 at 1:07pm

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

I read that column. And my friends and I agree with you. Except we live in the general D.C. area and are a cross between political junkies and just sick of it all at the same time, so we might not represent the norm of people talking about this. ...then again, most people talking about this are the D.C./NYC/large media organizations, but they just have a vested interest in keeping up the hubbub. Gotta keep that 24 hour news cycle going, and you can only talk about Herman Cain's sex scandal for so long...then again, that's still taking up most of the air time, so... I give up. Also, if people are about to start buying your book, I suppose you may want to finish it.

- andyman345

November 7, 2011 at 2:42pm

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

Also, did you guys forget daylight savings? The time stamps are an hour ahead and my computer clock has already been corrected.

- andyman345

November 7, 2011 at 2:43pm

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

Having it on Amazon should serve as some good "implementation intention." Looking forward to it.

- Jonas

November 7, 2011 at 2:45pm

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

I heard a nationally recognized professor of tax law explain in 2009 that Congress would not deal with the sunset provisions of the Bush Estate Tax one year repeal until September of 2010, (instead of at the end of 2009) because people have 9 months to file estate tax returns and September was the last possible moment. Well, September rolled around and nothing. Then, in December, we had retroactive rules with options and so forth. None of it was predictable. The tax laws just get worse and worse. Every tax law prognosticator says, "I threw out my crystal ball because it was broken."

- Nusholtz

November 7, 2011 at 2:46pm

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

I'm sorry Tim. I'm embarrased to admit this, especially as one of andyman345's DC/NY half-junkie-half sick-of-it-all people (hilarious) and...well? I always fall asleep before the last syllable of "supercommitee" is even uttered. I kept trying to read your piece, but the whole topic induces narcolepsy in me.

- WandreyCer

November 7, 2011 at 4:03pm

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

I hear you WandreyCar. Well, what the piece says is don't feel guilty about that. Meanwhile, Robert Borosage calls for the super committee to fail in Salon: http://news.salon.com/2011/11/07/defeat_the_super_committee/singleton/ You don't have to read that either. But it's nice to see someone else finally saying more or less the same thing.

- Timothy Noah

November 7, 2011 at 4:13pm

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

OK then, I did not fall asleep reading your post, so I'll tally forth and give it another try - thank you for the link.

- WandreyCer

November 7, 2011 at 4:25pm

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

"Except, of course, on the column's 11 online commenters, who have my undying gratitude." I do find it refreshing how much you interact with and reference your commentators posts Mr Noah. We always got the impression that we were an embarrasing necessity of the job with Chait. (Which we probably are.) Maybe, there is a way to interact more with readers and not be tainted with the mindless flaming that this media form seems to encourage. Fair play to ye for trying.

- IggyPop

November 7, 2011 at 6:47pm

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

I assumed that they were just going to ignore the supercommittee's findings from the get-go, throw out the mandatory cuts, and legislate an FY13 budget after another full year of CRAs. To be honest, I figured the supercommittee was just a venue for both parties to prove that it's the other party's fault that Congress isn't getting anything done, rather than an actual attempt to accomplish anything. I suspect that the only people who don't think something along the lines of the above are pundits, and they probably think it too, but are required by their job to at least pretend that Congress' budgetary quibbles before the election actually matter.

- Lester

November 7, 2011 at 6:49pm

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

Isn't it possible that no one commented because it is just painfully obvious that the supercommittee won't meet its deadline and that that is a good thing?

- krvogel49

November 7, 2011 at 6:53pm

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

"Why so little impact?" Because people are still grieving over the departure of Jonathan Chait. But don't worry, Mr. Noah, you're gaining on him (and the comments here are still soooooo much better than what Chait has to put up with these days. There is definitely an advantage to a narrow subscriber-based blog.)

- timteeter

November 7, 2011 at 11:17pm

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

"Why so little impact? (Except, of course, on the column's 11 online commenters, who have my undying gratitude.) " Hey, I nodded my head after reading your article and went 'Yep. Nice article Tim.". It's gotta count for something.

- jet

November 8, 2011 at 1:07am

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

SHARE HIGHLIGHT

0 CHARACTERS SELECTED

TWEET THIS

POST TO TUMBLR

SHARE ON FACEBOOK

Close