Senate Conservatives May Block Sequester Solution
September 25, 2012
Not everyone in Washington is so desperate to avoid sequestration.
A handful of Senate conservatives have been gaming out ways to block a deal, if they consider it a bad one — even if it means letting billions in across-the-board cuts go through, according to GOP sources on Capitol Hill.
The issue: Republican budget hard-liners fear that the White House, congressional Democrats and their own party leaders will try to replace or forestall the cuts with budget gimmickry or new taxes. They worry that “fake” cuts — savings that would have happened anyway or other accounting tricks — will become increasingly popular, even for moderate Republicans, as the zero hour approaches for the Defense Department.
In private sessions, these Republicans have begun laying plans to block a big, bipartisan agreement, either by pressuring GOP leaders not to give ground or using the congressional rulebook to slow-walk the process.