Hoyer: Republicans Have Broken Their Promise

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) accused Republicans on Tuesday of reneging on a promise they made last year to not attach policy riders to necessary legislation.

“In the Pledge to America, the Republicans said this: ‘We will end the practice of packaging unpopular bills with must pass legislation to circumvent the will of the American people,’” Hoyer quoted.

“That’s what they’re doing,” he said. “They said they wouldn’t do it, they’re breaking their pledge, they are doing it. They’re doing it because it’s politically expedient to do it, not because they think it will pass.”

Hoyer referred to the GOP’s payroll tax cut extension plan as “political gamesmanship” because they were explicitly told by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that his chamber would not pass their bill.

The inclusion of the Keystone XL Pipeline mandate, which President Obama said would be grounds for vetoing the bill as a whole if it reached his desk, is further proof of Republicans’ partisan policy, according to Hoyer.

Hoyer, a longtime advocate for federal workers, continued to criticize the package for breaking the deal made in the Budget Control Act. Included in the GOP payroll tax package is an extension of the federal base pay freeze, which, according to Hoyer, would decrease the agreed upon “discretionary number” for federal employees. If the freeze extension is passed, $60 billion would be taken from federal employees’ salaries over the next decade.

With a number of issues still on the table and less than a week before the House is set to break for the holidays, Hoyer expressed concern that the session would be extended.

“This is theoretically the last week of the session,” Hoyer remarked. “I say that hopefully, but not with a good deal of confidence.”

Cornyn: Defense Cuts Would Be 'Arbitrary And Reckless'

By Adrianna McGinley

At the Hudson Institute Wednesday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) warned that sequestration following a possible supercommittee failure would have a disastrous impact on national security.

“I worry that our strategic thinking is being driven by dollars and cents more than common sense,” Cornyn said. “If this process fails, and I hope and pray it does not, then … the base defense budget would be cut 14 percent in real terms over just three years.”

Cornyn cited that the sequestration cuts would be in addition to $489 billion in defense cuts under the Budget Control Act and roughly $180 billion of efficiency cuts recommended by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

“This should really be a time for rebuilding and retraining and not retreating,” Cornyn advised. “But retreat is the only way to describe what would happen if our military forces are required to live under this sequestration process.”

Cornyn said military leadership is trained not to panic, but “you can hear their frustration and you can hear grave concern in their voices that America’s strategic commitments are being defined not by the requirements but by budgets. They’re frustrated that under the sequestration process the cuts would be arbitrary and reckless.”

The Senator said however that concerns over how the Pentagon spends money should not be disregarded. Rather waste, fraud, and abuse should be aggressively fought. He specifically alluded to financial mismanagement at the Department of Defense citing that it has not been able to produce an “auditable financial statement,” and although the department is not required to do so until 2017, he said it was “shocking” that it could not do so now.

Cornyn joked that the twelve members of the “Super Committee” have more power than any group of Americans since those who wrote the constitution and said they must make use of that power.

“Failure really should not be an option,” Cornyn said. “What would it say to not only the American people…what would it say to the markets, what would it say to the world about America’s seriousness of dealing with these problems?”