Joe (You Lie) Wilson Lies About Sequestration
Here is Joe's 10/25/2012 take on sequestration:
http://www.humanevents.com/2012/10/25/obama-administration-is-responsible-for-sequestration-cuts-says-joe-wilson/
Obama administration behind sequestration cuts, says Joe Wilson
By: John Gizzi
10/25/2012 10:40 AM
Republican Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina in an exclusive interview with Human Events, says he politely disagrees with Obama about his administration’s role in the drastic defense spending cuts scheduled to take place through sequestration.
“I beg to disagree with the president’s denial of an administration in the sequestration process,” said Wilson, who is a member of the Armed Services Committee, specifically citing references to Bob Woodward’s new book on the Obama administration, “The Price of Politics”, which says that sequestration originated behind closed doors in the White House.
In September 2009, the soft-spoken South Carolinian congressman became the subject of national controversy when he interrupted an address by the president to a joint session of Congress by shouting “You lie!” Wilson later explained that he was moved to shout when Obama insisted that the Obamacare legislation would not provide health care to non-citizens, and he knew from the committee process that this was not the case. Wilson promptly called the White House and apologized to then-Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel.
Although Wilson said Emmanuel accepted his apology and the president has “always been gracious to (wife) Roxanne and me when we’ve been to the White House,” the Democratic-controlled House at the time formally rebuked the lawmaker. In addition, he became one of the top targets of national organizations when he ran for re-election in 2010. Wilson won handily and this year, he is unopposed for re-election.
Since Joe appears to be clueless about this sequestration, here's a little wikipedia for you, Joe:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_Control_Act_of_2011
The Budget Control Act of 2011 (Pub.L. 112-25, S. 365) is a federal statute in the United States that was signed into law by President Barack Obama on August 2, 2011. The Act brought conclusion to the 2011 United States debt-ceiling crisis, which had threatened to lead the United States into sovereign default on or about August 3, 2011.
The law involves the introduction of several complex mechanisms, such as creation of the Congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (sometimes called the "super committee"
[1], options for a balanced budget amendment and automatic budget sequestration.
~snip~
Provisions
Debt limit:
The debt limit was increased by $400 billion immediately.[2]
The President could request a further increase of $500 billion, which is subject to a congressional motion of disapproval which the President may veto, in which case a two-thirds majority in Congress would be needed to override the veto.[3] This has been called the 'McConnell mechanism' after the Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who first suggested it as part of another scheme.[4]
The President could request a final increase of $1.2–1.5 trillion, subject to the same disapproval procedure. The exact amount depends on the amount of cuts in the "super committee" plan if it passes Congress, and whether a Balanced budget amendment has been passed.[3]
Deficit reduction:
Spending was reduced more than the increase in the debt limit. No tax increases or other forms of increases in revenue above current law were included in the bill.[5]
The bill directly specified $917 billion of cuts over 10 years in exchange the initial debt limit increase of $900 billion.[5] This is the first installment ("tranche" of cuts. $21 billion of this will be applied in the FY2012 budget.[4]
Additionally, the agreement established the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, sometimes called the "super committee",[1] to produce deficit reduction legislation by November 23, 2011, that would be immune from amendments or filibuster (similar to the Base Realignment and Closure).[4][6] The goal of the legislation was to cut at least $1.5 trillion over the coming 10 years and be passed by December 23, 2011.[6] Projected revenue from the committee's legislation could not exceed the revenue budgeting baseline produced by current law. (Current law has the Bush tax cuts expiring at the end of 2012.) The committee would have 12 members, 6 from each party.[5]
The agreement also specified an incentive for Congress to act. If Congress failed to produce a deficit reduction bill with at least $1.2 trillion in cuts, then Congress could grant a $1.2 trillion increase in the debt ceiling but this would trigger across-the-board cuts ("sequestrations"[note 1]).[3] These cuts would apply to mandatory and discretionary spending in the years 2013 to 2021 and be in an amount equal to the difference between $1.2 trillion and the amount of deficit reduction enacted from the joint committee. There would be some exemptions: reductions would apply to Medicare providers, but not to Social Security, Medicaid, civil and military employee pay, or veterans.[4][5] Medicare benefits would be limited to a 2% reduction.[7]
As originally envisioned, these caps would equally affect security and non-security programs. Security programs would include the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Nuclear Security Administration, some management functions of the intelligence community and international affairs from the U.S. State Department.[8] However, because the Joint Select Committee did not report any legislation to Congress, the act reset these caps[clarification needed] to defense (essentially the DOD) and non-defense categories.[9]
Legislative history
Vice President Biden shook hands and congratulated President Obama immediately after a call between the president and Speaker Boehner in which they reached a deal for the Budget Control Act, July 31, 2011.
House vote by congressional district.
The bill was the final chance in a series of proposals to resolve the 2011 United States debt-ceiling crisis, which featured bitter divisions between the parties and also pronounced splits within them. Earlier ideas included the Obama-Boehner $4 trillion "Grand Bargain",[12] the House Republican Cut, Cap and Balance Act, and the McConnell-Reid "Plan B" fallback. All eventually failed to gain enough general political or specific Congressional support to move into law, as the midnight August 2, 2011, deadline for an unprecedented U.S. sovereign default drew nearer and nearer.[13]
On the evening of July 31, 2011, Obama announced that the leaders of both parties in both chambers had reached an agreement that would reduce the deficit and avoid default.[6] The same day, Speaker of the House John Boehner's office outlined the agreement for House Republicans.[14] One key element in the deal being reached and the logjam being broken earlier that afternoon was U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's ability to negotiate with his 25-year Senate colleague, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.[15][16][17] Biden had spent the most time bargaining with Congress on the debt question of anyone in the administration, and McConnell had viewed him as the one most trustworthy.[15][16]
The agreement, entitled the Budget Control Act,[1] passed the House on August 1, 2011 by a vote of 269–161; 174 Republicans and 95 Democrats voted for it, while 66 Republicans and 95 Democrats voted against it.[13] One moment of extra drama came when Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords made her first appearance back on the floor of Congress following the near-fatal assassination attempt upon her in the 2011 Tucson shooting; she voted in favor of the bill.[13] Giffords received prolonged, loud applause from her colleagues and said in a statement, "I had to be here for this vote."[13]
Projected and known impacts
Congressional passage of the bill gave President Obama the chance to sign the Budget Control Act into law, which he did on August 2, 2011.
The act will not actually reduce the overall U.S. debt over the 10-year period it is specified for, only slow down the existing rate of growth of the debt.[12] That is partly because the cuts due to the act will not reduce federal spending in absolute terms, but rather reduce the year-to-year increases in spending from what had previously been anticipated.[2] Even with the slowdown, both federal spending and the debt are still projected to grow faster than the U.S. economy, due to the cost curve effects of health care, which the act does not address.[12]
The debate on the bill was driven by the Republicans' insistence on spending cuts as their condition for agreeing to raise the debt ceiling. This raised concern because of the relationship between aggregate demand and unemployment; as Patrick Lunsford, Senior Editor of insideARM.com stated in a Forbes magazine blog, "when government spending is slashed, jobs are lost and consumer demand falls."[26] During the debate over the bill, economists across ideologies agreed that reducing spending during a recession would likely make unemployment worse.[27] In analyzing the specific bill that emerged, the Economic Policy Institute stated, "The spending cuts in 2012 and the failure to continue two key supports to the economy (the payroll tax holiday and emergency unemployment benefits for the long term unemployed) could lead to roughly 1.8 million fewer jobs in 2012, relative to current budget policy."[28]
Most of the $900 billion in the first tranche of cuts occur in future years and so will not remove significant aggregate demand from the economy in the current and following year.[4] Only $25 billion in federal discretionary spending is required to be removed for 2012.[2] Regarding the across the board cuts, these could not take place until 2013 and so if triggered, a new Congress could vote to eliminate or deepen all or part of them. Some top Republicans were particularly concerned that any defense cuts could not go into effect until after 2013.[4]
Passage of the Budget Control Act of 2011 was not enough to avert, three days later, Standard & Poor's downgrading the nation's credit rating for the first time in the firm's history, from "AAA" (highest) to "AA+" (highest, with qualifications).[29] They said they were "pessimistic about the capacity of Congress and the administration to be able to leverage their agreement this week into a broader fiscal consolidation plan that stabilizes the government's debt dynamics anytime soon."[29] (The United States Department of the Treasury pointed out an error of $2 trillion in Standard & Poor's calculation of the ten-year deficit reduction under the Act, and commented, "The magnitude of this mistake – and the haste with which S&P changed its principal rationale for action when presented with this error – raise fundamental questions about the credibility and integrity of S&P’s ratings action."[30]) S&P has partially disputed this claim of error, arguing that it is not as substantial as the Department of the Treasury is asserting, stating, "In taking a longer term horizon of 10 years, the U.S. net general government debt level with the current assumptions would be $20.1 trillion (85% of 2021 GDP). With the original assumptions, the debt level was projected to be $22.1 trillion (93% of 2021 GDP)." They further state that they used a spending inflation rate of only 5 percent in their calculations which is actually lower than the 7 percent spending inflation rate the Budget Control Act of 2011 assumes.[31]
