House Majority Leader Eric Cantor still trying to renege on debt ceiling deal (John Gress/Reuters)
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's
attempt to renege on the debt ceiling deal's automatic cuts in the payroll tax cut extension negotiations didn't work, so he's taking another route. Remember that this is the deal that Congress agreed to and passed last August, when negotiating an increase in the debt ceiling, to lump automatic defense cuts if the Super Congress also created by that deal couldn't come up with an alternative plan. The minute it was agreed to, deficit peacocks started screeching about cuts to defense.
Never mind that President Obama has repeatedly vowed to veto any legislation attempting to undo the deal. Now Cantor is amplifying those shrieks.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) wants to replace the $600 billion in automatic defense cuts set to begin in 2013, even if Congress must do so one year at a time.
The defense cuts are looming as half of the $1.2 trillion sequestration that will kick in because of the failure late last year of the congressional deficit “supercommittee” to agree to a deficit-cutting plan.
While deficit reduction has faded in recent months as a top priority on Capitol Hill, Cantor and defense hawks in both parties have begun discussions about trying to replace the Pentagon cuts with spending reductions elsewhere in the budget.
The effort could reprise the deficit-slashing battles of 2011 as the November election nears.
Cantor didn't offer up his choice of domestic cuts to replace that $600 billion, but it's easy to guess what would be on his list: any spending that could potentially aid any non-wealthy person, bonus points if it's particularly punitive to the poor or elderly, or a natural disaster victim.