The leader of Democrats in the House of Representatives on Thursday named three members of her party to fill the final three slots House on Congress' new debt-reduction supercommittee, a panel whose members are already being tugged in competing directions, AP reported. Rep. Nancy Pelosi selected Reps. James E. Clyburn, and Xavier Becerra of California, who both are members of the party's House leadership. Also chosen was Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the Budget Committee. The 12-member panel, divided evenly among Democrats and Republicans, has until Thanksgiving to propose $1.5 trillion in 10-year budget savings. If it does not propose a package or if Congress doesn't approve it, $1.2 trillion in automatic budget cuts will be triggered. The panel was created as part of a deal in which the U.S. limit on borrowing was lifted above $14.3 trillions. The deal reached earlier this month included about $1 trillion in federal spending cut but no increase in tax revenues as President Barack Obama had wanted. It does raise the debt limit sufficiently, another Obama demand, to keep the issue from returning to Congress until after the November 2012 presidential and congressional elections. -- SPA
