–House Speaker: Sequestration Replacement Bill Cuts Deficit
By John Shaw
WASHINGTON (MNI) – House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday the
House will pass legislation later in the day to replace about $100
billion in across-the-board spending cuts in the 2013 fiscal year with a
package of more than $300 billion in 10-year spending savings.
Boehner told reporters the House GOP’s sequestration replacement
bill includes “significant deficit reduction.”
The House is now debating the plan that was crafted by House Budget
Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and was approved by the Budget Committee
Monday.
Ryan’s plan reduces spending on food stamps, curtails medical
malpractice claims, repeals part of the Dodd-Frank law, requires federal
employees to contribute more for their pensions, cuts the child tax
credit program, and repeals the Social Services block grant program.
Rep. Van Hollen, the ranking Democrat on the House Budget
Committee, has said the across-the-board spending cuts should be
replaced by a “balanced approach to deficit reduction.”
Van Hollen’s alternative would curtail some agriculture subsidies,
close tax benefits for oil and gas firms, and increases taxes on
millionaires.
The action in the House this week is regarding the sequestration
process is expected to be the first step in a prolonged battle to
replace across-the-board spending cuts with alternative savings.
Over nine years, about $1.2 trillion in across-the-board cuts are
mandated by the sequestration process which was mandated by the failure
of Congress’s Super Committee last fall.
On other matters, Boehner restated his opposition to gay marriage.
He brushed aside a raft of questions about the matter by saying that he
and other Republicans are focused on economic matters.
“The American people are concerned about our economy, they are
concerned about jobs,” Boehner said.
“I’m going to stay focused on jobs,” he added.
** MNI Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **
[TOPICS: M$U$$$,MFU$$$]
