Obama/Begich Sequester to Hit Tomorrow
WASHINGTON, D.C – For months, Republicans in the House and Senate have been urging their Democratic counterparts to replace President Obama’s sequester with smarter, safer and more sensible spending cuts to lower the deficit. Instead, less than 24 hours before the President’s Sequester proposal hits, Senator Mark Begich (D-AK) voted to instead replace the sequester with a bill that raises taxes and actually INCREASES the deficit.
You read that correctly: Senator Begich’s solution to America’s deficit is to add more to it by taking more from hard working Alaskan families and throwing good money after bad.
NRSC Communications Director Brad Dayspring issued the following statement:
“Leave it to Mark Begich to try to solve the deficit crisis by adding more to it. Senator Begich voted today to take more money from Alaska families and give it to the powerful Democrats controlling Washington to spend, adding billions more to the deficit. Workers and families in Alaska understand that there’s a simple and smart way for Washington to do a little more with a little less, unfortunately Mark Begich would rather do a little less with a lot more. Senator Begich left Alaska families with the sequester repercussions and refused to support a sensible alternative.”
BACKGROUND:
The Congressional Budget Office Estimated That The Plan Would Increase The Deficit By $7.2 Billion. “S. 388 would eliminate the automatic spending reductions scheduled to occur under current law for 2013 and would partially eliminate the reductions scheduled for 2014. The bill also would eliminate direct payments to certain agricultural producers, provide funding for agricultural disaster assistance, and exempt from sequestration all mandatory funding provided for the Department of Agriculture. In addition, S. 388 would ensure that taxpayers with annual income above $5 million face an average tax rate of at least 30 percent on their income, and it would extend an existing per-barrel tax on oil production to oil produced from tar sands. CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimate that enacting the bill would increase budget deficits from changes in direct spending and revenues by $7.2 billion over the 2013-2023 period.” (“S. 388: American Family Economic Protection Act Of 2013,” Congressional Budget Office, 2/27/13)
President Obama Supported The Begich Senate Bill, Despite The Fact That It Would Increase Deficits. “White House-backed legislation in the Senate to replace $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts would raise the deficit through the end of the budget year by tens of billions of dollars, officials said late Wednesday as the two parties maneuvered for public support on economic issues.” (David Espo, “Senate Dems’ Bill Light On Deficit Cuts In 2013,” The Associated Press
