Administration officials insist that the path to compromise lies in a “balanced” approach that replaces the cuts in part with higher taxes. But among Republicans — even those who admit the sequester will cause pain to the folks back home — the appetite for new taxes is virtually nil.
“Look, the American people will simply not accept replacing spending cuts agreed to by both parties with tax hikes. And I plan to make all of this clear to the president when I meet with him,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a speech on the Senate floor.
Despite a steady drumbeat of dire warnings from the White House about the sequester’s impact on jobs and economic growth, financial markets reacted with a yawn. On Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average closed down a bit after surging within 25 points of its all-time high, reached in October 2007.
Meanwhile, the Internal Revenue Service announced that it would delay furloughs of agency workers until after the April 15 tax-filing deadline, providing another reason to doubt that the cuts would hit hard and fast enough to change GOP sentiment.
“The sequester is not a good idea. The reality is it’s a terrible idea. As an appropriator, it’s even more terrible to us than to normal people,” said Rep. John Carter (R-Tex.), who oversees homeland security spending on the House Appropriations Committee. Carter’s central Texas district is home to Fort Hood, one of the nation’s largest military bases, and its economy is heavily dependent on government spending.
“But if we don’t face up to these things and lead on this issue, what’s the panic going to look like when we start seeing our entitlement programs collapse around our ears?” Carter said. “It’s hard. But doing the hard thing is the definition of leadership. As Harry Truman said, ‘The buck stops here.’ ”
Administration officials predict Republicans will be more open to compromise once the sequester starts to steal resources from local schools, police forces and businesses that hold contracts with the government. But Republicans say the dynamics of the sequester are fundamentally different from the year-end fiscal cliff, when large numbers of congressional Republicans agreed for the first time in more than two decades to approve significant tax hikes.
In December, the failure to act meant taxes would automatically rise for everyone, an outcome most Republicans opposed. With the sequester, the failure to act means government spending will automatically fall by $85 billion this year — an outcome most Republicans not only desire but promised on the campaign trail.
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