Republicans push to stop automatic U.S. spending cuts

[Judi Lynn]

Republicans push to stop automatic U.S. spending cuts
By Donna Smith
WASHINGTON | Thu Feb 2, 2012 1:02am EST

(Reuters) - Wide-ranging U.S. spending cuts set to kick in next year for domestic and military programs would be scrapped by a proposal that some top Republicans plan to outline on Thursday.

Senator John McCain has joined forces with assistant Senate Republican leader Jon Kyl and other party members to introduce legislation that would eliminate the first installment of $1.2 trillion in automatic spending reductions over a decade.

These cuts were at the center of a budget brawl between President Barack Obama and Republicans in Congress last year during a fight to increase the U.S. debt limit.

The new proposal by McCain, Kyl and four other Senate Republicans would spare the military and selected domestic programs of cuts set to go into effect in January 2013. The $127 billion in budget savings would be achieved, instead, by scaling back the federal workforce and freezing its pay.

More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/02/us-usa-budget-cuts-idUSTRE8110DA20120202?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&rpc=401

[Historic NY]

1. But, But....... we have a deficit WTF....

it just goes to show you they have no interest in stopping spending

[jberryhill]

2. No

Let the GOP spend the next eight months fighting spending cuts they agreed to already.

Issue is closed until next session.

[jaysunb]

3. Chess, anyone ? 11th dimensional maybe ?

Oh...you don't know this game ?

[Kablooie]

4. If they can't cut what they want, they want no cuts at all.

They aren't about balancing the budget.
They just want to kill programs that don't help the wealthy.

[DRoseDARs]

5. Republicans push to stop automatic U.S. spending cuts *that they previously agreed to

*Fixed your headline, Reuters.

[msongs]

6. the welfare military is more sacred than anything else they worship nt

[TrollBuster9090]

10. No, I think their compulsive fetish for tax cuts for plutocrats tops the welfare military.

But Corporate Welfare is a close second, and the military industrial complex is a part of it.

[The Wizard]

14. Eisenhower warned us

How many law makers have off shore accounts getting filled by defense contractors?

[Lasher]

7. I hope Democrats give them a taste of their own medicine in the Senate.

What they want to do is perpetuate our bloated military, on the backs of men and women who work for the federal government. That is corrupt.

[Firebrand Gary]

8. No deal

We will continue our deficit reduction, thank you very much!

[TrollBuster9090]

9. Hahah! Nice try, a-holes.

Agreeing to automatic, across the board cuts that are proportional to the spending for each department only highlights the fact that the military bureaucracy accounts for more than half the budget, while things like the federal education initiatives you despise cost practically nothing. You give the Department of Education six pennies and you take two of them away, who cares? You give the Department of Defense six hundred billion, and you take away two hundred billion...HAH! NOW we're talking!

It also reminds everyone that Social Security and Medicare have separate funding systems, and remain untouched by this. So...what are you left with to cut from the non-military side? Bloated AGRICULTURE subsidies, for a start, almost exclusively from red states. And sure, you'd like to cut food stamps but you can't, because that's also part of the agribusiness welfare complex.

Big cuts to the bloated military are the other third rail of politics. Neither party would EVER agree to vote big cuts to the military through Congress. It would be political suicide. But now Obama gets to make deep (automatic) cuts to the military, and blame it on the Teahadist insurgents in the House for their inability to compromise. COULDN'T ASK FOR BETTER! Thanks!

[cbrer]

11. Election years are sooooo entertaining.

The GOP wants smaller government! Just ask one.

[secondwind]

12. Switching one pain for another...........

[DCKit]

13. They was fer' in until they was agin' it.

So much for being "fiscally conservative", eh?

[freshwest]

15. Republican campaign slogan: Raise the deficit, not our taxes!

The party of fiscal irresponsibility and moral bankruptcy rides again.

[sinkingfeeling]

16. And here I thought the GOP was the only party concerned about the debt!

[rocktivity]

17. "The...savings would be achieved...by scaling back the federal workforce and freezing its pay."

The members of Congresss included?


rocktivity

[Bohunk68]

19. The other thread about this

also reported that Obama promised to veto such a bill. Several responded that they'll believe it when they see it. TX4Obama locked the other thread. Said it was a duplicate. Inasmuch as this thread doesn't even mention the threatened veto, then it is not the same thread.

[surrealAmerican]

20. What on earth is the point of coming to these agreements in the first place ...

... if you're just going to fight against them afterwards?

[nanabugg]

21. Funny how the biggest escalation of Federal workforce always happens under the GOP.

Clinton actually cut the Fed workforce while "putting people first." Bush, Reagan ( especially Reagan) grew the Feds.