Cole: Sequester Is DC’s ‘New Normal’
Lawmakers: Sequester Is Capitol Hill’s New Normal
By JOHN T. BENNETT
WASHINGTON — US lawmakers are stumbling into a season of budgetary crises, with spending cuts once dubbed “draconian” and “devastating” now largely viewed by House Republicans as immovable conservative canon.
Nine months after Congress interrupted Americans’ New Year’s Eve celebration with its “fiscal cliff” drama, lawmakers are beginning a multiround fiscal fight — and each battle could prove more bitter than the last.
As part of a crisis-to-crisis saga that will span the autumn months, conservative House Republicans — joined by some GOP senators — want to lock in federal spending rates at sequestration levels. That would mean, as mandated by the 2011 Budget Control Act, the Pentagon’s planned base budget would shrink by nearly $50 billion annually, according to several Washington think tanks.
“I certainly think that’s where we’re at right now,” Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, the House Republican Conference deputy whip, told Defense News on Sept. 27. “I think we’ve made it clear we’re willing to negotiate where the cuts come from, but we’re not going to give up the savings.”