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Rep. Johnson Opposes Scam of Reconciliation

U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson opposes the reconciliation bill that was crafted to postpone automatic across-the-board cuts that had been mandated under sequestration.

The reconciliation bill the Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act of 2012 passed now goes to the Senate.

Rep. Johnson believes this bill typifies all the reasons Americans are upset with Congress. He feels there was a way forward but special interests intervened and once again, "we’ve just kicked the ball down the field to avoid making the hard decisions necessary to address our ballooning debt and deficits.”

The Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act was crafted in response to the failure of the Budget Control Act passed last August. Under the Budget Control Act, the debt ceiling was raised equal to the savings found by the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction, also known as the “Super-Committee”. Since the Super Committee failed to reach agreement, the Budget Control Act would have automatically sequestered $1.2 trillion in future spending, with nearly half the cuts coming from defense.

On the House Floor, Johnson said “We don’t even play by the rules we set for ourselves, from ethics to insider trading to ignoring spending caps, Congress does as it pleases. In August, both side of the aisle were praising the Budget Control Act. I voted against it as another inside-the-beltway scam. Everything about the Budget Control Act was a scam: the ultra-partisan Super Committee, the accounting gimmicks, and the sequester. Only in Washington can you count the slowing of spending growth as a “savings.” In the real word, people save when they spend less than they did yesterday."-end quote.

Johnson urged his constituents to "think outside of normal." He feels Congress must recognize that even defense must share in reining in the country's debt.

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