Republicans will only call off the second round of sequester cuts if President Obama agrees to their plan to cut entitlement spending, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.
"'We've always said sequester is not the best way to go about spending reductions. It was, as you know, a default mechanism, because Congress couldn't do the job it was supposed to, a couple of years ago,” Cantor said. “This fall is going to give us a great opportunity, I think, to all come together and try and tackle the real problem, which is the entitlements.”
Cantor’s remarks come after the Obama administration made clear last week that the president is not willing to compromise with Republicans on spending as part of an agreement on the budget for fiscal 2014—set to begin on Oct. 1. And congressional Democrats have also cooled to the idea. One Democratic aide told the Huffington Post “Our caucus would not accept entitlement cuts to replace the sequester -– that’s just replacing crappy cuts with crappy cuts.”
That means the possibility of a second round of sequester cuts as well as a government shutdown is becoming increasingly more likely. Stay tuned. - Read more at The Huffington Post
ICYMI: CONGRESS LEAVES WASHINGTON AS BUDGET RISK LOOMS
POLL SHOWS CHRISTIE AND CLINTON AS THE “HOTTEST” POLITICANS A new Quinnipiac University poll shows that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (both named as potential 2016 presidential candidates) are the two most favorable, or “hottest,” politicians. Christie topped the list with a 53.1 rating on the survey’s “feeling thermometer” while Clinton scored a 52.1. But among Democrats, Hillary topped the list and scored a 77.7, while Christie ranked eighth among Republicans with a score of 59.8. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) topped the list for Republicans with a 68.7 rating. - Read more at The Hill
RYAN: REJECTS PLAN TO KILL OBAMACARE VIA GOVERNMENT SHUT DOWN Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and a small group of Senators called on a grassroots movement last week to kill Obamacare by threatening to shut down the government this fall.
But House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan doesn’t think that’s the best way to go about repealing the president’s signature health care law. It’s a fascinating turnabout, since Ryan wrote a budget blueprint passed by the House that gutted all spending for Obamacare. “Rather than sort of swinging for the fences and take this entire law out, ... I think there are more effective ways of achieving that goal,” Ryan said on CBS News’ Face the Nation. “We think we can do better by delaying this law." - Read more at Politico
GALLUP: “SELF-REPORTED” CONSUMER SPENDING REMAINS FLAT Based on interviews with more than 14,000 Americans, Gallup found that "self-reported" daily consumer spending was $89 in July, nearly unchanged from the $90 in June and May. The polling suggests that spending growth from the first quarter of 2013 has stopped/ "Consumer spending has remained basically at that level since March—in the face of what are normally positive seasonal factors such as warmer weather, home improvement projects, and spring and summer travel,” the report said. - See the poll at Gallup
