MATHEMATICAL CERTAINTY

The Republican co-chairman of the bipartisan deficit panel said Sunday that the members’ inability to strike a deal is a “huge missed opportunity,” while refusing to say definitively that the committee had failed.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, and Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., another member of the so-called Super Committee, both said on “Fox News Sunday” that members are not giving up on striking some semblance of an agreement before a Wednesday deadline.

“There’s still time on the clock,” Becerra said.

But the committee has a matter of hours to submit a plan in order to give congressional budget scorekeepers enough time to review it. The de facto deadline could be as early as Sunday night. While Hensarling said lawmakers are “not going to give up hope” and continuing to talk, he did not dispute suggestions that the committee was headed for failure.

I really wish people would stop talking about “success” like it would actually be success, because it’s not.

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