Norton Condemns Raw Deal

Press Release

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said today that the deal reached by Democratic and Republican leaders avoids a default "but that is all that can be said for it because this one-sided deal contradicts the clear message from the majority of the American people that they wanted a balanced deal with both revenue increases and spending cuts." She called it a "cuts-only raw deal that will take money out of the economy and fuel unemployment instead of creating jobs at a time when Americans rank jobs over deficit reduction as the most important issue by three-to-one, according to polls. Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) was right that Republicans got 98 percent of what they wanted and he is probably going to have to round up the lion's share of the votes for it." Norton said that the District and this region were particularly endangered by the possibility of default because the federal contracts and federal jobs generate much of the revenue in the region. However, she said that she expects the region to be hit hard by the cuts in federal discretionary spending. Most of the particulars of the deal, which initially calls for $1 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years, will not be known until the appropriators allocate the cuts, but most will be from domestic spending.

At the second stage, a joint committee must find $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction, which can include entitlement cuts and revenue increases. However, Norton believes that a balanced plan that includes revenue increases would have a tough time getting through the Republicans on the committee now that Republicans have walked away with a winner-take-all deal. The only hope she said lies in the trigger that would mandate a 50/50 defense/domestic programs cut if the joint committee failed to reach an agreement. In that case, cuts to social security, Medicaid, and veterans benefits would be exempt, but although cuts to Medicare providers would not be exempt they would be capped at two percent. "No matter how you cut it, Republicans got the cuts they were after in this deal and the Democrats and the American people are left paying the price not only in cuts but in an economy that has no new revenue or way to grow."

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