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Even as President Obama in his opening State of the Union remarks last month said that sequester is a “bad idea” for the U.S. economy ,reiterating his demand for combination of taxes and spending cuts in order to avert $85 billion annual across-the-board budgets cuts, Republicans are almost certain that sequester will come into effect from March 1.
“Democrats, Republicans, business leaders, and economists have already said that these cuts, known here in Washington as ‘the sequester,’ are a really bad idea,” said the President in his annual address to the nation last month.
He said “some in this congress” were only in favor of preventing spending cuts on defense areas by letting bigger cuts on areas like education and job training, Medicare and Social Security benefits.
Meanwhile Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday ruled out any possibility of reaching an eleventh hour deal with Democrats, which would help preventing the looming threat of sequester.
Blaming Democrats for the policy impasse, McConnell virtually made it clear that the U.S. economy was likely to go through deep spending cuts both on defense and non-defense areas from March 1.
While addressing to press reporters on Capitol Hill, McConnell last month said, “It’s pretty clear to me that sequester is going to go into effect. I see no evidence that the House plans to act on this matter before the end of the month.”
McConnell said that Republicans will be offering a counterproposal to sequester replacement bill which is likely to presented by Democrats this week; however, he also added that there is very little hope for any progress as both sides will are expected to stock to their demands.
“The majority is going to offer a proposal I anticipate that we will have an alternative proposal, that however doesn’t lead to a solution … it just leads to a cover vote,” added McConnell.
Meanwhile, as political brinkmanship in Washington threatens to trigger automatic spending cuts or sequester from March 1, bickering among Democrats has made matter even worse.
Indeed, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid outlines replacement bill to avert sequester, a large group of fellow Democrats are dissenting against the bill saying that it proposes an even balance on spending cuts and tax increase.
For those who are pushing back against Reid’s package, a 50-50 split on spending cuts and tax hikes is unacceptable as they want a bill which would propose raising significant revenue through additional taxes.
A large number Democrats argue that a split should 80:20, that is, a major part of the revenue should come from taxing wealthy Americans so that spending cuts on social security and other Healthcare Program is minimal.
According to ‘The Hill’, all those who are opposing the Reid’s package argue Reid and President Obama are negotiating with themselves by supporting 50:50 ration of tax increases and spending cuts.
The journal said, lawmakers who were in attendance on Monday saw a group of 15-20 Democrats discussing their concerns over the 50:50 package supported by Reid and Obama.
Meanwhile, growing number of agencies have started issuing warnings to employees about possible layoffs, furloughs. It is estimated that 75,000 jobs will be lost once sequester comes into effect from March 1.
After Pentagon, and other federal agencies, Department of Homeland Security issued a warning on possible deterioration of services and furloughs should sequester comes into effect.
Secretary Janet Napolitano on Wednesday said that spending cuts would bring about inefficiency in border security, ports (longer time will be taken for entry and airports) and require furloughs of up to 14 days for law enforcement workforce.
