Harry Reid draws line in sand over automatic budget cuts

Sen. Harry Reid (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) With the House set to vote as soon as Thursday on their "Sequester Replacement Act" to renege on the Budget Control Act they agreed to last year, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says it'll be DOA in the Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid(D-Nev.) announced today that Senate Democrats would not agree to replace mandated spending cuts unless Republicans agree to a 'balanced' approach that asks the wealthy to help pay for it. [...]

'The Republican budget and their so-called reconciliation bill don't just renege on that bipartisan, bicameral agreement to reduce spending,' Reid said. 'They reflect fundamentally skewed priorities.

'They hand out even more tax breaks to multi-millionaires and shield corporate defense contractors, all at the expense of hard-working, middle-class families, the elderly and those in greatest need,' Reid continued.

The House is moving forward with the Romney-endorsed Ryan budget, attempting to overthrow the agreement they made last August, to further slash taxes for the wealthy (on top of the Bush tax cuts, which they'll fight to maintain), decimate the safety net, and actually increase defense spending. It's not a real policy statement, since it will be rejected by the Senate and President Obama, so it's the political statement Republicans are making for November's election.

Republicans are committed to making this their political marker: ending Medicare as we know it and gutting every government program but defense so that they can give even bigger tax breaks to rich people. This is their party platform for November, but it's also their attempt to drag the debate as far to the right as possible for the critical lame duck negotiations, when Congress will have to deal with the automatic budget cuts, along with the Bush tax cut extension and a number of other end-of-the-year fiscal messes.