Back in the dim days of fall, the ill-named supercommittee of House and Senate negotiators failed to reach an agreement on how to cut the federal budget. As such, a sequester was put in place that would slap automatic cuts on both domestic and defense spending. That possibility never sat well with anyone in DC and both sides have been working ever since to avoid a sequester come next year.
Thursday, the House will vote on its version of sequester-avoidance, the “Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act of 2012.”
Rep. Paul Ryan issued a press release that laying out the bill’s main points:
1. Stop Fraud, by Ensuring that Individuals are Actually Eligible for the Taxpayer Benefits They Receive;
2. Eliminate Government Slush Funds and Stop Bailouts;
3. Control Runaway, Unchecked Spending;
4. Restrain Spending on Government Bureaucracies; and
5. Reduce Waste and Duplicative Programs.
Waste, fraud and abuse are perennial targets in Washington, and they are, despite the similarly perennial claims to the contrary, quite real.
But there’s one thing to keep in mind about all the talk, press releases, votes and assorted grandstanding on this matter: sequester or “sequester replacement” aside, federal spending will keep on rising, as Cato’s Dan Mitchell illustrated here…
