Lawmakers Move To Prevent Automatic Defense Cuts

By Adrianna McGinley

Leaders on the House Armed Services Committee said they will look for ways to prevent automatic cuts to the nation’s defense budget from taking effect.

The Pentagon could lose roughly $600 billion over the next decade as a result of the congressional ‘super committee’s’ failure to pass a plan to reduce the deficit by $1.3 trillion.

In a statement released late Monday evening, Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) said the cuts would cause “catastrophic damage” to national security. “I will not be the armed services chairman who presides over crippling our military,” he vowed. “I will not let these sequestration cuts stand.”

McKeon announced he will soon introduce legislation to stop the cuts from taking place, citing that nearly $500 billion has already been cut from the military budget and saying, “those who have given us so much, have nothing more to give.”

The committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), also said that he was disappointed by the panel’s inability to reach a deal.

“Once again we’ve missed the chance to implement a comprehensive plan that balances revenue and spending reform and puts us on the path toward fixing our long-term fiscal and economic problems,” Smith said.

Smith warned that the cuts to defense would not be based on sound policy or strategic review and would, as a result, undermine national security.

“This is no way to defend our nation, and this is no way to run our government,” he said.

Their efforts, however, will be met by resistance from the administration.

“Already some in congress are trying to undo these automatic spending cuts,” President Obama said yesterday evening. “My message to them is simple; ‘no.’ I will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts…there will be no easy off-ramps on this one.”

Hensarling Blames Debt Panel Collapse On Dems

By Andrea Salazar

The Republican co-chair of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction blamed Democrats Tuesday for the committee’s failure to come up with a deal to reduce the nation’s deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years.

“[Democrats] were unwilling to agree to anything less than $1 trillion in tax hikes — and unwilling to offer any structural reforms to put our health-care entitlements on a permanently sustainable basis,” wrote Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.

President Obama’s “disappointing lack of leadership” didn’t help the matter, Hensarling said.

“Unfortunately, the committee’s challenge was made more difficult by President Obama. Since the committee was formed, he has demanded more stimulus spending and issued a veto threat against any proposed committee solution to the spending problem that was not coupled with a massive tax increase.”

Despite the committee’s inability to come up with a plan, Hensarling remains committed to “ensuring that full deficit reduction is realized.”

“As Winston Churchill said, ‘Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted.’ Despite my disappointment with the committee’s setback, I remain confident that we will yet again prove Churchill right.”

Super Committee Braces For Failure, Preps For Fallout

Democrats and Republicans are gearing up for a political showdown following the seemingly inevitable collapse of super committee negotiations.

Though the 12-member panel technically has until Wednesday to reach an agreement on a deficit-reduction package, a potential deal must first be reviewed by the Congressional Budget Office and be made available to the committee for two days prior to a vote, making Monday the effective deadline.

Democratic and Republican members of the super committee took to the airwaves over the weekend to prepare the nation and Congress with an approaching truth; the bipartisan, bicameral unit has failed to reach an agreement.

“From the Democratic side, it was the same thing. Raise taxes, pass the presidnet’s jobs bill, no entitlement reform,” said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) on NBC’s “Meet the Press. “On the Republican side, you had the one true breakthrough and that was this new concept of tax reform which could generate revenue from upper brackets.”

Democratic Sen. Xavier Becerra (Calif.) countered on “Fox News Sunday,” arguing that the concession made by Republicans on revenues was of little significance.

“Remember, we have 1,400 multimillionaires in this country who didn’t pay a single bit of income taxes in 2009. Why should they escape participation when we’re akin seniors to help cover the costs of deficits… that the didn’t even cause?” he said.

Aides close to the negotiations admit that, as unlikely as it may be, a last minute deal could still make its way to the CBO before the end of the day.

“I’m at the table,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I want to solve this. I know Americans want us to solve this. I remain hopeful that someone on the other side will say, this is too important to fail.”

Despite the potential for a last ditch effort to reach an agreement, partisan finger pointing has already begun within the 12-member panel as Democrats blame Republicans for digging their heels in the ground on taxes and Republicans have charged Democrats with being unwilling to put entitlements on the table.

“On the other side, there was an insistence that we have a trillion-dollar tax increase [and] and unwillingness to cut any kind of spending at all unless there was a huge tax increase,” said Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

If, in fact, the super committee does announce failure Monday, a series of automatic cuts would shed $1.2 trillion from the deficit over ten years which includes a big chunk from defense spending. Republicans will attempt to alter the required cuts so as to lessen the impact on the nation’s defense system, but according to reports, Democrats will block this move unless the GOP allows the Bush-era tax cuts to expire for the wealthiest Americans.

Hoyer: Balanced Budget Amendment Unnecessary

By Adrianna McGinley

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) today criticized Republican efforts to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment.

Although reporters noted that he supported a Balanced Budget Amendment in the 1990s, Hoyer said he no longer does because of fiscal “irresponsibility” on the part of Republican leadership over the last decade.

“What I said in 1995 I absolutely agree with today,” Hoyer said. “Unfortunately, I did not contemplate the irresponsibility that I have seen fiscally over the last 9 years or 8 years of the Bush administration and Republican leadership in the House and the Senate.”

Hoyer said Congress should be focused on finding ways to pay for the deficit, not passing constitutional amendments.

“The tough votes are paying for things, it’s not a tough vote to pretend you’re going to go for a balanced budget by having some amendment on the floor…if you want to cut revenues, make sure that you have the guts to cut spending…if you don’t have that kind of courage then don’t criticize others for saying we have to pay for things.”

Hoyer said, however, that he believes the so-called “super committee” tasked with creating a plan to reduce the nation’s deficit will meet its Thanksgiving deadline.

“Time is short but not so short that agreement can’t be reached,” he said. Failure, he added, is not an option because the billions in automatic cuts to domestic and defense spending that would result are “irrational and bad policy.”

Hoyer said that the U.S. has the resources to solve its problems but lacks “the courage and the will to do so.”

Cantor Says Sequester Won't Be Applicable Come Thanksgiving

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Monday that there is no threat of a sequester as a result of failed negotiations by a 12-member panel tasked with cutting at least $1.2 trillion in savings by Nov. 23.  

“I don’t think a sequester will be applicable because I believe [the Joint Select Committee] will reach an agreement before the deadline,” Cantor told reporters during his weekly press conference.

Cantor tiptoed around an onslaught of questions focused on the deficit panel, saying that, having been a part of this summer’s Biden-led negotiations on raising the nation’s debt ceiling, he wanted to avoid adding pressure on the committee. 

“I want them to do their work without added pressure from me,” Cantor said.  

Although Cantor remains hopeful that a deal will be reached within the next 9 days, the substance coming from inside the “super committee” has indicated otherwise.  

The “breakthroughs” that resulted from Democratic concessions to slash entitlements and Republican proposals that put new revenues on the table were diminished before Congress broke for the holiday.