WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor today regarding a hastily crafted bill by the Majority Leader that attempts to replace the President’s Sequester cuts with what the Director of the Concord Coalition has called ‘the mother of all…gimmicks’:
“Something remarkable happened in the Senate last night. It was sort of late in the day. So for those who missed it, here’s a little recap.
“Late yesterday afternoon, the Majority Leader handed us a hastily crafted bill and then asked if we could pass it before anybody had even seen it.
“Apparently someone on the other side realized they had no good explanation for why they hadn’t prevented the delays we’ve seen at airports across the country this week, so they threw together a bill in a feeble attempt to cover for it.
“It’s embarrassing.
“It actually proposes to replace the President’s Sequester cuts with what’s known around here as OCO.
“I know this isn’t something that will be familiar to most viewers, so let me borrow an explanation provided by Senator Joe Lieberman in a letter he signed with Dr. Coburn last year:
“’The funds allocated for OCO or ‘war savings’ are not real, and every member of Congress knows this. The funds specified for Overseas Contingency Operations in future budgets are mere estimates of what our nation’s wars cost may be in the future. And since it is likely that future OCO costs will be significantly less than the placeholders in the Congressional Budget Office’s estimates, it is the height of fiscal irresponsibility to treat the difference between the assumed and actual OCO costs as a ‘savings’ to be spent on other programs.’
“Let me read that last part again: ‘it is the height of fiscal irresponsibility to treat the difference between the assumed and actual OCO costs as a ‘savings’ to be spent on other programs.’
“This from the man who was once the Democrat nominee to be Vice President. So there’s bipartisan consensus that this thing we call OCO is a fiscally irresponsible gimmick.
“The Director of the Concord Coalition has called it ‘the mother of all…gimmicks.’
“The President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget called it a ‘glaring gimmick.’
“So, whether OCO is the mother of all gimmicks, or just a glaring one – everybody other than the Majority Leader evidently agrees on one thing: it’s the height of fiscal irresponsibility.
“Now, just as important as what the Majority Leader’s proposal is, however, is what it isn’t. It isn’t a tax increase. And that’s news.
“The Majority Leader is clearly ditching the President on this issue. As you may recall, the President has said he’d only consider replacing the Sequester with a tax hike. And whatever you want to say about OCO, it’s not a tax hike – it’s borrowed money that’ll have to be repaid later.
“Still, it doesn’t punish small businesses like the President’s proposals would do. So this is big news. It represents a significant break from the President’s favored approach on this issue.
“As I said yesterday, the President rejected the flexibility we proposed on the Sequester for obvious political reasons. He wanted these cuts to be as painful for folks as possible as an excuse to raise taxes to turn them off.
“Well, it’s not working. Even his own party is starting to abandon him on this issue. But the broader point is this – even without the flexibility we proposed, he already has the flexibility he needs to make these cuts less painful. He should exercise it.
“I also think we should all acknowledge that there’s now bipartisan agreement that tax hikes won’t be a replacement to the Sequester.
“But the real solution, as I’ve said, is for the Administration to accept the additional flexibility we’d like to give it to make these cuts in a smarter way, and to get rid of wasteful spending first.”