President Obama recently made news by claiming that sequestration was “not (my) idea” and “would not happen.” Unfortunately, President Obama was not truthful with the American people. Not only was sequestration his idea, he has also been absent when it comes to working with Republicans to replace these dangerous and arbitrary defense cuts.
The president’s policies have failed and made our economy worse. After four straight years of $1 trillion deficits and $5.5 trillion added to our national debt, we’ve got to quit spending money we don’t have. Last year, Congress and the president agreed to $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction, and House Republicans are committed to realizing these full savings for taxpayers.
House Republicans want to achieve savings without the arbitrary cuts that Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta agrees would “hollow out the force and inflict severe damage to our national defense. The impacts of these cuts would be devastating for the Department… Facing such large reductions, we would have to reduce the size of the military sharply.”(November 14, 2011)
That is why House Republicans advanced specific, common-sense reforms to replace dangerous cuts to our national defense and key domestic priorities. We passed legislation to replace the defense cuts without increasing our deficit by reforming federal programs that have experienced a funding explosion over the past decade.
Last week, The Hill reported “(President Obama) hasn’t laid out a comprehensive plan to avoid” his own sequestration plan. It is past time for the president and Senate Democrats to join a debate they continue to evade because military families and taxpayers alike deserve answers from our Commander in Chief on why he believes these dangerous and arbitrary cuts should not be replaced with common-sense spending reductions.
Additional information on House Republican action to replace and detail the sequester can be found here:
H.R. 5652 - Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act of 2012
H.R. 5872 - Sequestration Transparency Act of 2012
Letter from House Republican Leadership asking the President to work with us to avoid fiscal cliff
H.R. 6365 - National Security and Job Protection Act
