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May 19, 2012

Our View: Automatic cuts will test Congress

The Free Press

— It appears the automatic spending cuts known as sequestration that Congress passed last year are working as designed, or maybe not.

The severity of the cuts in an across-the-board way have members of Congress squirming to either do something to protect their favorite programs or fall on their own sequestration sword.

Democrats and Republicans in the House have proposed plans to remove the automatic cuts of $1.2 trillion over 10 years and replace them with a more targeted and measured set of budget deficit reduction plans.

Both of those plans have gone nowhere fast. Democrats proposed replacing the cuts by ending subsidies for oil and gas companies and proposing a new tax rate known as the “Buffet rule” that would require anyone making at least $1 million to pay a minimum tax rate, often pegged around 30 percent.

House Republicans never allowed a floor vote on the measure.

Republicans on May 10 proposed removing the sequestration rule, increasing military spending by $55 billion or 10 percent, and cutting over 10 years several domestic programs including food stamps, school lunches and children’s health programs.

That vote passed the Majority Republican House on a mostly party line vote, although 16 Republicans voted against the plan.

Political pundits have said the plan has no chance of passing in the Senate and was more of a statement of principle on Republican plans for deficit reduction.

The sequestration legislation was put into place as a compromise plan when Congress was gridlocked approving the debt ceiling last year. The idea was to put this automatic, mostly across-the-board spending cut plan in place to give Democrats in the Senate and Republicans in the House incentive to compromise on a more reasonable plan.

Already, many are saying the proposed $50 billion cuts to the defense budget would harm national security. Democrats say the similar amount of cuts to domestic programs such as Medicaid and food stamps would be equally devastating.

Already, numerous industries including military contractors and hospitals are preparing for the automatic cuts and in the process hesitating on hiring and cutting back now instead of later.

The average taxpayer may be just fed up enough with Congress to let the automatic cuts ride and see where we end up. In other words, if Congress is going to fashion some kind of alternative plan, they will likely not be getting a lot of public support.

This indeed may be the time where our elected officials will be tested to be true statesmen or mere reality show actors playing a game that is all too real.

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