Trump’s New Military Plan Will Gut One of the Tea Party’s Biggest Achievements
Donald Trump isn’t done killing the Tea Party yet. Today, he’s scheduled to propose repealing one of its signature achievements.
Trump’s advisors says he will propose ending the “sequester” for the military — one of the rare budget reforms signed into law by President Obama, born out of the debate over the 2011 debt ceiling increase.
Meaning, Trump’s — the self-described “King of Debt” — big plan for the military is more debt for America.
A quick trip down memory lane reminds that sequestration was brought to fruition largely by Tea Party-fueled members of Congress elected in the 2010 midterm wave. Sent to Washington by voters who were angry over the skyrocketing debt, those new members demanded more responsible spending. And President Obama’s 2011 request to increase the debt ceiling — the legal spending limit for the government — gave them the perfect opportunity.
The Democrats, as always, were resistant to any reforms. They said anyone who opposed the debt increase, for any reason at all, was threatening the “full faith and credit” of the United States government. They said the president deserved a no-questions asked, no-strings attached debt increase. Then, they said they would only be willing to talk if large tax increases were included in the deal.
Ultimately, a package of spending cuts was agreed upon in exchange for the debt ceiling increase that did not include any tax increases. The deal stipulated that Washington accept a series of spending cuts over the next 10 years in exchange for giving President Obama a $400 billion debt increase in 2011.
It wasn’t perfect because it a typical DC deal: spending, save later. But it was something.
The Heritage Foundation’s Steve Moore — now an enthusiastic Trump supporter — said the sequester “shrunk the size of government more effectively than any budget took in a generation” and that it “put an electric fence around the Left’s grand spending ambitions.”
Since it was enacted, efforts have been underway to undo the defense cuts by hawkish Republicans such as Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. (F, 30%) and John McCain, R-Ariz. (F, 34%). And, Trump is offering to turn off the electric fence for them.
“I will ask Congress to eliminate the sequester and immediately re-invest in our military,” he told an audience in Greenville, North Carolina yesterday. Aides say he will offer more details today in an upcoming military-focused speech at the Union League in Philadelphia.
That’s a change for Trump, who once praised the sequester in 2013 and called for even deeper cuts. A change that makes him sound a lot more like Hillary Clinton than a conservative.
“We cannot impose arbitrary limits on something as important as our military,” Clinton said at the American Legion in Cincinnati last week. “That makes no sense at all. The sequester makes our country less secure.”
So consider a debate over defense spending off the table for presidential debates. Both of them are in favor of nixing that particular Tea Party victory. (For more from the author of “Trump’s New Military Plan Will Gut One of the Tea Party’s Biggest Achievements” please click HERE)
Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.
