Richie, I'm not endorsing Toomey's now-dead proposal, but he was trying to get a compromise with the Dems out of the supercommittee.

On November 21, the committee concluded its work, issuing a statement that began with the following: "After months of hard work and intense deliberations, we have come to the conclusion today that it will not be possible to make any bipartisan agreement available to the public before the committee’s deadline."

Toomey was offering a plan to trim deductions and close some tax loopholes in exchange for a permanent extension to the Bush-era tax cuts for people in the tip tax brackets and lowering tax rates for the top brackets. His proposal would have lowered the tax from 35 percent to 28 percent.

On the otherhand, the Dems proposals in the supercommittee included cutting $400 billion in Medicare and Medicaid. In the end it was all a big waste of time.