A new, new Supercommittee

Are DC Dems finally catching up to the will of the people and about to do what the DFHs have been suggesting for months on end?

For some time now, Dems have been trying to find a way to get the new Congressional “super committee” on deficit reduction to also focus on jobs. The idea is that job creation — in addition to being urgently needed — can also help with deficit reduction. [...]

Larson and Dems plan to introduce several proposals next week along these lines to amend the current law creating the super-committee — and they will ask Congress to pick from among them. One proposal would simply amend the super-committee’s current mission to include job creation. The second would ask each of the four Congressional leaders to appoint one more person to the committee, bringing its membership to 16 — and create a sub-committee on job creation that would produce a jobs proposal as part of the final deficit reduction package.

This committee's work would also be subject to a trigger and sets a clear metric: "The proposal has to represent a credible effort to bring unemployment down to 5.5 percent by 2014."

Or they could create a wholly separate committee. While I can see a lot problems with trying to define "credible effort" and finding consensus on whether the proposals will accomplish the goal, it is something. Certainly better than sitting around waiting to cave in to whatever insane plot the GOP hatches up next.

In any event, Greg's insiders say it will be taken to the floor for a full Congressional vote. Believe that when I see it, but I certainly hope it's true.

Meanwhile, David Dayen thinks it's too little, too late and that it's effect would be more political than practical. I don't disagree, we all know the GOPers will vote against anything the Dems propose, but isn't this part of what the professional left has been demanding? A rhetorical fight that creates a clear choice? Dems vote for job creation, GOPers vote against it? Seems like a clear winner to me, even if only as a political strategy.