Weigel

Occupy the Supercommittee!

At 10 a.m., I went to the Heritage Foundation for Paul Ryan’s big speech on class warfare. At 11 a.m., I raced over to the Hart Senate offices where the supercommittee’s latest hearing was already in progress. There had been reports of Occupy protesters outside the building, but on the way into the hearing room, nada – just a dozen Capitol police and some standing cameras for the eventual post-hearing bromides.

The hearing was chugging along, with Democratic members trying to get CBO director Doug Elmendorf to agree that the Bush tax cuts needed to go, and Republicans trying to get him to agree that fundamental entitlement reform was the only thing that would truly cut the debt. As Rep. Dave Camp wrapped up, a middle-aged blonde woman got up and briskly moved toward the senators and members of Congress, standing behind Elemendorf, not moving any further. She was wearing black, not Code Pink clothing – she was totally anonymous.

“All this obfuscation with percentages of GDP,” she said, “this is just trying to confuse the issue.” She kept repeating a talking point: You could solve the problem if you ended the war and taxed rich people. She had a hearty 30 seconds to repeat this as cops slowly moved in.

“It’s very obvious,” she said, being hauled away. “I speak for the 99%. We need to end the wars and tax the rich.”