Posted on 02/23/2013 2:02:57 PM PST by andyk
Although Senate Democrats will take cues from the White House on how to proceed after the sequester kicks in, they are set this week to vote on a plan that replaces one year of the sequester, or $110 billion of cuts, with a 50-50 split of targeted cuts and new revenue. That includes eliminating direct payments to farmers — a provision that received bipartisan support in the Senate in 2012.
Although Democrats feel confident about their bipartisan approach, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., already stripped the direct payment provision from legislation during the fiscal-cliff debate, and he likely would not support such a measure now. According to the Farm Service Agency, 42,027 Kentucky farms received a historic, cumulative $42,962,487 in direct payments in 2011.
“We all feel very strongly that, just as we did in the first two months of replacing the sequestration, the 50-50 is a fair and balanced way to move forward,” Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., said the day the caucus released its framework. “I don’t think the Republicans are going to come back ... and want to be responsible for the devastating consequences of sequestration of going into place.”
Republicans, on the other hand, are preparing to move forward with a plan that would give the president the authority to reapportion the prescribed cuts as long as he hit the same top lines and did not shift the ratio of defense-to-nondefense cuts. Several GOP senators have introduced some iteration of this framework — from James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma to Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania — and GOP Conference Vice Chairman Roy Blunt, R-Mo., told a St. Louis radio show he believed ceding this power to the White House would be a feasible solution.
“The compromise is to give the president authority that he should be willing to use as the leader of the country to target the cuts rather than to take the cuts on every line item,” Blunt said Feb. 21. “These spending cuts are going to occur, and they should occur, and they should be done in the right way instead of the wrong way.”
A Senate Republican aide confirmed that rank-and-file members are pushing for the flexibility legislation as long as the administration cannot make the cuts more defense-heavy.
Of course, there could be a downside to ceding that sort of authority to President Barack Obama: He could focus his cuts on programs near and dear to Republicans. But at least the onus and therefore the political ownership would be on the White House and Democrats, Republicans believe.
As for whether such a measure could get House backing, a spokesman for Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, left the door open.
“If that’s what they do, we’ll be happy to take a look,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said.
Paul M. Krawzak and Steven T. Dennis contributed to this report.
Tens of thousands of acres of farmland have been leased for oil and gas drilling, a far more profitable enterprise than farming: no expensive machinery to buy, no weather that can wipe out a crop right before harvest, no labor issues.
Better start learning how to grow your own, urban dwellers.
Deplorable and distressing ideas from the Republican Senate.
1. Let the sequester go through without amendment.
2. Do not squander away legislative power to Obama..Never..Ever.
3. For shame McConnell. The Ag direct payments elimination must stand.
4. Flexibility in managing the sequester should be granted to Department heads as part of the Debt Extension bill.
Civilizational suicide continues.
It’s zer0s sequester. He owns it. Let it happen.
Bin Laden is DEAD. The war is over pull back the troops. If the towel heads attack us again we need to saturation bomb them. No need to precision bomb. It only shows weakness
Revenues now, cuts to be named later.
“50-50 is a fair and balanced way to move forward”
LOL!
That’s what we said during the ‘Fiscal Cliff’ but they would accept ONLY increased taxes with no cuts and that’s what they got.
I have no problem with eliminating 20 billion. My question is why are we so quick to first eliminate one of the few programs that benefit the producers in society and those who typically vote and support conservatives? We may as well just write a check to the Democrat National Commitee. It is like we are shooting our own. Instead we should first look to take $20 billion from the moochers of society.
In any event there's no way the House will take this up. Sequester will happen.
And as a side issue...millionaires are being created at a rate of 2000 a year in North Dakota....mainly oil/gas royalties, pipeline access royalties and a few entrepreneurs.
If you make a deal with the Devil, you deserve to burn in Hell with him.
NO to bipartisan agreements on ANYTHING with these worthless and corrupt bastards.
Oil/Gas leases refer to exploration and drilling. The surface is still farmed/ranched. An oil derrick doesn’t take much space.
How about a big old NO to the Obamaunists. He got his revenue 6 weeks ago, the hell with him/them. It might give Boehner time to grow a pair before the debt ceiling demands.
Yeah, I understand the sentiment. If the senate passes a bill that contains the elimination of the agricultural subsidies, then the GOP could “compromise” by passing a bill changing the sequester by removing $20 billion from DoD cuts, and replacing them with $20 billion in agricultural subsidy cuts.
if the sequester is as awful and dreadful and the end of the world, how can half of the end of the world be an acceptable compromise? seriously, how can the democrats be so cruel?!?
besides the sequester is barry’s awesome brainchild solution. why must we be saved from barry’s once-lauded as genius, solution?
This “sequestration” crap is getting old fast.
If the House has passed a budget, it’s the Senate’s turn to act. Period. Let’s see what reid and his Senate do. Meanwhile, the House needs to move on to other business and Boehner needs to answer each and every question from the scumbag Democrat “mainstream” newsrooms with the same exact answer, word for word: “The House has done its job and passed a budget, and now we await action from the Senate. Meanwhile, the House is moving on to other business. Next question?”
Translation: "WEe previously asked if we could stick forks in both your eyes. Now we are only asking you to let us stick a single fork in one of your eyes. Surely you can cave that far."
NO MORE DEALS - and I say that as one who will directly suffer from furloughs caused by the sequester.
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