Sen. Mike Crapo and Rep. Mike Simpson expect $85 billion in automatic budget
cuts to go into effect March 1 before their colleagues and the president get
down to business.
Both Republican lawmakers are prominent members of bipartisan groups in
Congress dedicated to trimming up to $5 trillion from the growing federal debt
over the next decade. They say that both tax increases and cuts to entitlement
programs, such as Medicare, have to be on the table.
Crapo said Tuesday that reducing the debt before the United States loses
it ability to borrow at low rates is the most critical issue facing the
nation.
"The American Dream is on the line," Crapo said.
Simpson and Crapo were in Boise on Tuesday for a symposium on the debt,
co-sponsored by the James and Louise McClure Center for Public Policy at the
University of Idaho and Idaho Public Television.
They joined two high-powered figures in the effort to focus attention on
fiscal issues: former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming, who co-chaired
the Simpson-Bowles Commission on the fiscal crisis; and Sen. Mark Warner,
D-Va., one of the "Gang of Six" senators with Crapo seeking a "grand deal" on
the deficit.
Alan Simpson came to Boise after he and Erskine Bowles, Bill Clinton's
former chief of staff, unveiled a new proposal to avoid the approaching
automatic spending cuts while trying to deal with debt drivers such as
Medicare. Their plan would cut the deficit by $2.4 trillion over the next
decade through a mix of health care reform, closing tax loopholes and Social
Security adjustments.
"We feel we've succeeded beyond all our dreams because we've pissed off
everyone in America," said Alan Simpson.
Idaho's Crapo and Simpson said that Congress has been unwilling to
undertake a painful restructuring of entitlement programs. It also has been
unwilling to reform the tax code, which could mean getting rid of some popular
breaks.
"Sequestration" is the formal term for the automatic across-the-board
cuts that are on the horizon. After those "stupid" cuts are made, Mike Simpson
said, Congress will have to address a possible shutdown of the government and
deal with raising the debt ceiling again.
"I think the next 90 to 100 days are going to decide the future of our
country," Mike Simpson said.
It will take a bipartisan deal, according to Crapo, because the public is
not going to like what has to be done to prevent the nation from losing its
solvency.
"The worst option is the status quo," said Crapo, who served on the 2010
Simpson-Bowles panel, which made recommendations that were never enacted.
Warner said that sequestration will cost taxpayers more money than they
will save in many cases. For instance, multiyear military contracts often
provide savings of 20 percent to 30 percent over short-term contracts, which
could be lost to across-the-board cuts, he said.
Idaho's Simpson, who has teamed up with Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer of
Maryland in supporting what they call the "go big" plan, is hopeful that a
deal can be forged this year.
"I honestly believe there is a governing majority in the House and Senate
ready to make the tough vote," Mike Simpson said.
In Washington on Tuesday, President Barack Obama warned that "people will
lose their jobs" if Congress doesn't act to avoid sequestration. The president
said that the immediate spending cuts would affect the full range of
government.
The Associated Press contributed.
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Distributed by MCT Information Services
