Super Committee Member Jon Kyl Turns Eye Towards Saving Pentagon From Trigger Cuts

WASHINGTON -- Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) a member of the congressional super committee charged with devising a plan to shrink the national debt, pledged on Sunday to find a way to limit the defense budget cuts that would be triggered by that committee's likely failure.

"I can't imagine that knowing of the importance of national defense that both Republicans and Democrats wouldn't find a way to work through that process so that we still get the $1.2 trillion in cuts but it doesn’t all fall on defense as [Defense] Secretary [Leon] Panetta pointed out," Kyl said on "Meet the Press." "I think there is a way to avoid that if there is good will on both sides. And again I think when the reality sets in even those Democrat friends who would like to see more defense cuts ... will find ways to work around that."

As it stands now, the super committee's failure to reach a deal by Wednesday would result in automatic cuts totaling $1.2 trillion, half of which would come from defense. But because those cuts won't actually happen until 2013, Congress has the capacity to alter or even prevent them fully.

Kyl, who is retiring from Congress, ruled out simply wiping away the triggers altogether. But his argument that the sequester falls too heavily on defense has picked up steam on the Hill. The president has, recently, said he would not support changing the parameters of the trigger. And when pressed privately, White House aides have always argued that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) shares their sentiment. But operatives within the Democratic Party are already waxing skeptically about their own lawmakers keeping those particular cuts in place, predicting that they'll buckle to avoid being branded soft on defense.

Speaking after Kyl on "Meet the Press," Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), another supercommittee member, sounded the alarm against that happening.

"Jon just talked about how they are not going to do that sequester," Kerry said. "He just talked about how they are going to get out from under it. There is a real threat that not only will there be a downgrade but that the market on Monday will look again at Washington and say, 'you guys can't get the job done.' And just the political confusion and gridlock is enough to say to the world: 'America can't get its act together.'"

Comments

[elfish]

03:37 AM on 12/06/2011

Palin

[elfish]

03:37 AM on 12/06/2011

Bush

[elfish]

03:37 AM on 12/06/2011

Henry

[elfish]

05:49 PM on 12/05/2011

irritable

[elfish]

05:48 PM on 12/05/2011

divorce

[gregory57]

08:50 PM on 11/22/2011

Is that Jon "not intended to be a factual statement" Kyl?

What did you expect?

[rcozad]

09:11 AM on 11/22/2011

Yesterday the President had one word for the Republicans like Kyl that refused to bargain thinking they would come back and undo the original agreement NO !

[juicybrisket]

03:08 AM on 11/22/2011

if he wants to save defense, then they need to let the bush tax cuts go so a deal can be made

[Lois Salem]

10:36 PM on 11/21/2011

If our annual deficit is $1 trillion why on earth do they talk about cutting $1.4 trillion over 10 years. Thats not going to do a damn thing to our debt

[jwcmass]

06:42 AM on 11/22/2011

If we REALLY want to cut down on debt, then we need to cut Defense spending, which is more costly than ALL other nations defense budgets COMBINED!!  

Getting the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and ending those two costly wars will also significantly cut into the deficit. 

And why do we need bases in places like Japan or Germany? Or in countless other places? 

It is time for our Allies to start taking their share of the cost in Defense. We simply do not have the financial capacity to defend the entire world. 

And of course, our tax system needs to be reformed. That means eliminating the Bush tax cuts (they certainly didn't help the economy), and all the tax loopholes which large corporations use. 

But campaign finance reform (which, thanks to the Supreme Court, will now require an almost impossible to pass Constitutional Amendment) would REALLY save a great deal of money. Those corporations are not donating out of a sense of civic duty -- they are doing it as an investment, and what a return they get. I know of no other time in US history when Corporate lobbyists actually WRITE the legislation that is supposed to regulate them. 

But what we REALLY need to address is the fact that since 1970, productivity has vastly increased (this is a measure of the output of each worker, through greater efficiency and so on). USUALLY, when productivity goes up, then workers wages and salaries should ALSO go up. 

But that hasn't happened. Families tried to keep up with skyrocketing prices for housing and health-care by moving women into the workplace, but even that was no longer enough, and forced many into deeper and deeper debt, just to break even. 

Even the most menial job should pay a LIVING wage -- which would allow a person working full-time to support their family, and keep it above the poverty level. 

When you have less income inequality, you have more people buying the things which make the economy go -- and they are also more able to pay taxes. 

The last time we had comparable income inequality, the result was the Great Depression. We seem to have forgotten the lessons of that era.

[Lois Salem]

07:48 AM on 11/22/2011

Living wage??? Income inequality??? So someone who doesnt work as hard as someeone else shold get the same pay just because? Someone who opens a business and is successful doesnt deserve higher compensation? I will agree that some CEO's today do make too much-- but that is the fault of the Board of Directors who set those wages and bonuses. But even according to you they wouldnt be paid according to their ability but according to what would equal things out.

[gregory57]

08:52 PM on 11/22/2011

Sorry, the political establishment needs the fear that our military machine generates to keep us, and the rest of the world, in line. They are never going to make the military smaller, unless they're forced to.

Hint: The corporate people will not do this.

[ajustman]

09:37 PM on 11/21/2011

They are robbing us but not for too much longer because people ar efed up!!!!!!!

[bop54jen]

09:34 PM on 11/21/2011

I think that the Republicans went into the Supercommittee with exactly this result in mind. They never meant to keep their part of the bargain. In fact, then never intended to bargain at all. Then they would find a way to prevent the automatic cuts in defense from taking place.

Talking about transparent!

[Lois Salem]

07:49 AM on 11/22/2011

The same colod be said about the democrats

[bop54jen]

08:27 AM on 11/22/2011

The Democrats did offer cuts to entitlements. In the debt crisis this summer, Boehner walked away from a prime deal from the President.

Is it can't make a deal or won't make a deal? I think it is won't.

[citizensrus]

07:22 PM on 11/21/2011

Some people prefer Sparta to Athens.

[ninersscore]

05:02 PM on 11/21/2011

What pledge?.........................OOPS

[esq1128]

04:43 PM on 11/21/2011

The tea party became a pary. Why not the 99% party and vote the do nothings( Democrat,Republican. Indeoendant & Tea party) out of OUR government

[Jefferson Vickers]

04:29 PM on 11/21/2011

Of course they do change, suppress, or pretend they don't exist.