White House Likes Reid’s Plan to Delay Sequester Cuts - East Idaho News
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White House Likes Reid’s Plan to Delay Sequester Cuts

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090111 WhiteHouse?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1366836676966Official White House Photo by Pete Souza(WASHINGTON) — With the effect of across-the-board spending cuts rippling throughout the country, the White House said Wednesday President Obama supports Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s proposed plan to delay additional sequester cuts temporarily.

“We support this effort to allow both sides to find a longer-term solution that replaces the sequester permanently in a balanced way so we can stop these harmful cuts that are hurting our economy and middle-class families across the country,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters at the daily briefing.

With FAA furloughs causing coast-to-coast airport delays, Reid has proposed an anti-sequestration bill that would cancel the budget cuts for five months, paid for with savings from the winding down of the war in Afghanistan.

The plan does not, however, include new tax revenue, the president’s previous sticking point for any such deal.

“We believe that Senator Reid’s proposal is a good one in that it would temporarily delay the sequester and all the negative effects that we’re talking about now to air travelers and families and seniors, as well as the job loss and the drag on our economy, in order to allow for the discussions that the president is engaged in to try to find common ground with Republicans to bear fruit so that we can reduce our deficit in a balanced way and eliminate the sequester entirely,” Carney said.

He stressed that the Reid plan is just a “Band-Aid.” “The fact is, on dealing with the sequester, Congress has to act,” he said.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Raido

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