Sens. Graham, Paul split over harm from sequestration cuts

GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham (S.C) and Rand Paul (Ky.) on Sunday highlighted the split within the Republican party on the effect of the looming $85 billion in sequester spending cuts slated to take effect on March 1. 

In interviews on "Fox News Sunday" Defense hawk Graham said the cuts would devastate the military, while Tea Party conservative Paul argued that the sequester is not really a cut at all in government spending.

Graham said President Obama was shirking his duty as commander in chief by allowing the cuts to come into effect.

"On his watch we are going to unravel the greatest military in the world,” he said. “Iran is watching us...we are allowing people to be slaughtered in Syria.”

Graham said that the Senate Democratic proposal to replace the sequester with more tailored defense cuts, farm program cuts and tax increases was laughable. 

“Let's put Obamacare on the table,” he proposed.

Paul, however, was far more comfortable with allowing sequestration.

He said that while the across-the-board nature of the cuts is not ideal, the cuts are needed. 

“Ideally we would have done the right thing and passed appropriation bills... the sequester is sort of a hammer,” said Paul. 

But he added that the sequester and 8 years of similar cuts slated to take effect still leave spending on an upward path. 

“The sequester is really a reduction in the rate of growth of spending, it is not a real cut in spending,” he said. “Even with the sequester, spending will still rise overall.”

Paul denounced Obama for listing new programs in his State of the Union address. and proposing to pay for them with tax increases. He added that attempts by Obama to paint the GOP as the party of protecting tax breaks for the wealthy were false.

“It is our job to explain to the public big government doesn't help the poor,” he said. “His massive debt causes prices to rise.”

Paul also told "Fox News Sunday" that he would only run for president in 2016 if he can win and that he will not decide on a possible bid until next year. 

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Rep. Blackburn downplays party split over ‘fiscal cliff’ tax bill

By Alicia M. Cohn - 01/02/13 08:19 AM ET

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) on Wednesday downplayed divisions within the Republican Party over the "fiscal cliff" tax bill, which passed late on Tuesday night. 

"We had a very spirited debate" as a conference, she acknowledged on CNN's "Starting Point." 

Only 85 House Republicans voted for the bill, which prevents a majority of expected tax hikes and delays the automatic spending cuts triggered by end-of-the-year "fiscal cliff" deadlines. 

The bill split the House GOP leadership, with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) voting in support and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) voting no. Another key leader, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), voted yes.

Many Republicans expressed dismay with the bill because it does not include significant spending cuts. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the deal will add $3.9 trillion to the deficit over the next decade.

But Blackburn described behind-the-scenes discussions as "healthy" and "respectful."  

"What the Speaker of the House, leadership did was let the House work its will," she said.

Following the vote, McCarthy had said the party leadership did not whip votes for the bill. "There were good reasons to vote for it and good reasons to vote against it," he said.

Previous attempts by House Republicans to resolve the "fiscal cliff" had failed, with legislation either dead on arrival in the Senate or, in the case of Boehner’s “Plan B” tax proposal last month, dropped after leaders could not win enough GOP support. 

The bill that passed on Tuesday night was the result of a deal brokered by Vice President Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and passed by the Senate early on New Year’s Day.

The measure extends indefinitely the expiring George W. Bush-era tax rates on annual family income up to $450,000, and for individuals up to a $400,000 cutoff. It also lifts the top capital gains and dividends rates to 20 percent, extends unemployment benefits for a year, and delays for two months the automatic spending cuts triggered by the sequestering process. Democrats widely supported the legislation after a personal appeal by Biden.

The tax deal, though, has set up further spending battles, with across-the-board cuts now slated to take effect in March and the president pushing for a debt-limit hike by late February. 

Blackburn pledged that with January’s tax hikes avoided, deficit reduction would be the focus of every House negotiation in the future. 

Republican members decided "we are done with kicking this can down the road. This will happen no more. We grabbed that can. And that can is called spending cuts," she said. "We are going to have very spirited, very thoughtful debates on cutting what this government wants to spend."

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