GOP revives alternative sequester plan

House and Senate Republican defense hawks are reviving a
proposal to avoid the first year of sequestration cuts by reducing the size of the federal
workforce, which they introduced Wednesday as they blasted President Obama’s
efforts.

The Republican lawmakers, who gathered for a joint press
conference Wednesday, said their plan was the path of least resistance to avoid
the $45 billion in across-the-board spending cuts that Pentagon leaders say would
devastate the military.

The GOP hawks also urged lawmakers in their own party who
have said in recent weeks that they would allow sequestration to occur to reconsider
their position.

But they also said the president’s call for new revenues in
a short-term deal was a non-starter after he just got $600 billion in tax
increases, a tack that Republicans of all stripes have taken since Obama called
for a short-term fix Tuesday.

{mosads}“I visited with our top leaders and they have told me we
have gone past cutting the fat. We’ve gone past cutting the meat. We’re into
the bone,” said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.).

“It’s time for the president to face up to what the real
responsibility is, what the real problem is, and that’s to look at mandatory
spending.”

The one-year delay, which is being spearheaded by McKeon and
Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), was a plan that was “as painless as possible to
protect our troops,” McKeon said.

The legislation would reverse the $85 billion in sequester
cuts still on the books after the two-month delay that was included in the
“fiscal cliff” deal. The funds would be offset by cutting the federal workforce
by 10 percent over the next decade through attrition, by hiring back one worker for
every three who leave.

The bill would also include a congressional pay freeze.

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.,) Lindsey
Graham (R-S.C.) and Ayotte joined with McKeon and Reps. Mac Thornberry
(R-Texas) and Mike Turner (R-Ohio) at the press conference to introduce the
plan.

A similar proposal was introduced in both the House and
Senate in the last Congress, but it went nowhere in either chamber during an
election year.

The top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, Rep. Chris Van
Hollen (Md.), suggested Wednesday the idea still did not have the support of
Democrats.

“The federal workforce are the people that help get out
Social Security checks, the people who help process Medicare claims, they’re
the FBI,” Van Hollen told The Hill when asked about the proposal. “Those are
people who provide important services.”

With sequestration set to take effect March 1, a growing
number of lawmakers have said it appears the cuts were not going to be
stopped. Obama called on Congress to pass a short-term fix on Tuesday, and his
top aides met with executives from top defense contractors Wednesday.

Republicans responded by blasting the president’s proposal, which included a call for more tax increases,
as not serious.

Ayotte said the GOP lawmakers were hopeful that their
alternative to the sequester would attract support from congressional leaders,
saying there was “real urgency here.”

“I think we’re in a different place,” she said. “People
understand that there are grave implications to this, and so I would hope that the
leadership would hear from them and view this as a very legitimate proposal
that addresses this issue.”

Graham also took a shot at Republicans who are saying that
sequester is the best way to achieve real spending cuts, arguing they were as
bad as the president on the issue.

“We have our fingerprints as Republicans on this proposal,
on this sequestration idea,” Graham said.

“To my Republican colleagues, after this hearing that Buck’s
going to have, if you feel comfortable with cutting the government this way,
then you’ve lost your way as much as the president,” Graham said, referring to
a House Armed Services hearing where the Joint Chiefs will testify about the
dangers of sequester to the military.

McKeon took a more diplomatic tack toward members of his own
party who want to let the sequester happen, saying that fiscal conservatives and
defense hawks shared the same goal of deficit reduction.

“There’s plenty of things to fight about,” McKeon said. “I
think some of the differences I have with some of my Republican friends is — we’re
not that far apart. We all want to fix the deficit problem.”