Cruz: Budget deal 'deeply concerning'

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http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/192824-cruz-budget-deal-deeply-concerning

December 11, 2013, 02:53 pm
Cruz: Budget deal 'deeply concerning'

By Alexandra Jaffe

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) finds the budget deal brokered by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) "deeply concerning," his office said Wednesday.

The senator is on a flight back from South Africa, where he attended the memorial services for Nelson Mandela with a group of fellow lawmakers, so he hasn't had time to fully review the proposal, spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said.

But she added that he did take issue with much of it.

"We shouldn't sacrifice the modest 2.4 percent spending cuts already in law in exchange for a mere possibility of future reductions. While Sen. Cruz supports adjusting the sequester so it doesn't disproportionately target vital defense spending, we should be taking a serious look at what is actually driving our debt and deficits, not raising spending in exchange for minor changes and promises of future action," she said in an email to The Hill.

Cruz is one of a handful of likely 2016 presidential contenders to criticize the deal.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Wednesday called it "shameful" to increase funding past sequestration levels, and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) warned during an appearance on Mike Huckabee's radio show that "to walk away from the already agreed upon reductions in spending that were so difficult to achieve, I think opens the floodgates that really threaten to put us right back in these spending habits."

Their wariness comes as nearly half a dozen conservative groups have announced their opposition to the proposal, which would set a top-line spending number just over $1 trillion for each of the next two fiscal years and replace $63 billion in sequester cuts with other savings. It also includes an additional $22.5 billion reduction in the deficit.

[mystery-ak]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/inside-politics/2013/dec/11/rand-paul-budget-deal-shameful-huge-mistake/

Rand Paul: Budget deal 'shameful,' 'huge mistake'


By Seth McLaughlin - The Washington Times

December 11, 2013, 10:36AM

Sen. Rand Paul added his name to the list of lawmakers opposing the bipartisan budget deal carved out between House and Senate negotiators, saying it is “shameful” to restore previously agreed to spending cuts in exchange for promises of future deficit reduction.

Mr. Paul, Kentucky Republican and likely 2016 presidential contender, said that the two-year spending proposal is like many that have come before it.



“There is a recurring theme in Washington budget negotiations. It’s ‘I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today,’” Mr. Paul said in a statement. “I think it’s a huge mistake to trade sequester cuts now for the promise of cuts later.”

Separately, House Speaker John Boehner, a supporter of the budget deal, sharply attacked outside conservative groups that have attacked the compromise, charging that critics opposed the agreement even before knowing what was in it.

“They’re using the American people to their own purposes,” an angry Mr. Boehner said. “This is ridiculous.”

The lead negotiators in the Senate and House — Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, Washington Democrat, and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican — announced Tuesday that they had reached a deal that would reduce the deficit by $23 billion over ten years without raising taxes.

The proposal, though, has drawn the ire of conservatives who say that Republicans should not be giving up ground to Democrats on the previously agreed to spending cuts — known as sequesters — to defense and non-defense programs that were agreed to as part of the 2011 Budget Control Act.

The deal calls on Congress to set aside $1.012 trillion in discretionary spending for the Pentagon and other federal agencies in fiscal year 2014 and $1.014 trillion for fiscal year 2015.



It restores $63 billion in sequester cuts.

“The small sequester spending cuts were not nearly enough to address our deficit problem,” Mr. Paul said.

“Undoing tens of billions [of dollars] of this modest spending restraint is shameful and must be opposed. I cannot support a budget that raises taxes and never balances, nor can I support a deal that does nothing to reduce our nation’s $17.3 trillion debt.”