The country is just about two weeks away from a set of sharp, across-the-board automatic spending cuts. President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats are trying to avoid the so-called “sequester” which would hit the Pentagon and other domestic agencies particularly hard. Senate Democrats are unveiling a plan that would impose about $120 billion in spending cuts while generating new revenue from the “Buffet Rule,” which is a minimum tax on those who earn a million-dollars or more.
House Republicans have been calling this the President’s sequester, possibly looking to put the blame on President Obama should the sequester go through. But Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., tells Jansing & Co.’s Richard Lui, blame would fall squarely on the GOP.
“For the Republican membership maintenance, they have to let the sequester to go into effect. The Speaker has to show the GOP members they’re serious so they’re going to take us over this next cliff. But that really is a disservice to the country and another man-made crises.”
Schiff says Democrats have been willing to meet the GOP halfway. The Congressman supports the Senate’s 50-50 plan where the $4 trillion in deficit reduction comes from half revenue and half cuts. “It’s going to be very hard to get to that in the Congress,” Schiff said.
“The GOP is going to have to be a negotiating partner with us and a lot of the fight right here on the Hill right now is not between Democrats and Republicans… It’s between Republicans and Republicans in the House of Representatives.”
Still, Schiff says it won’t matter and the American people will blame Congress as a whole.
Sari Roth