Don’t expect relief from the budget cuts under sequestration anytime soon, a panel of current and former lawmakers said at a defense conference over the weekend.
It would take a national security crisis like the Sept. 11 attacks for Congress to roll back the defense cuts it passed in 2011, former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said, according to National Defense Magazine.
{mosads}Cantor said the dynamics in Congress that have stood in the way of reversing the $1 trillion in cuts are still in place — namely, disagreement on tax and spending reform. Half of the sequester cuts will hit the Defense Department, for $500 billion over 10 years, doubling already scheduled reductions in spending.
“There are real differences between the two parties on revenues and entitlements,” Cantor said Saturday at the Reagan Defense Forum.
“I don’t see a path where you’re going to get bipartisan relief on [Budget Control Act] caps,” he said. “There needs to be bipartisan agreement even though there’s a Republican majority in Congress.”
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) said Democrats would support lifting the cuts on defense if legislation eased the sequester cuts on healthcare and education, too.
“Can we have an agreement where we lift it for the military and for other parts of the budget?” he said. “That would be the foundation of an agreement if there is one.”
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Congress needs to stop the budget cuts, and that there is an emerging pro-defense Republican wing in the Senate determined to do so. He said that group includes Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), and newly elected Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska). Another potential member is Sen.-elect Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).
“I promise you that we will make it [fixing sequestration] our highest priority,” said McCain, who is slated to become chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee in January.