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2012-05-10 20:47:42 House GOP Aims to Block Defense Cuts

BY ZACH TOOMBS A deal's a deal — at least until one side backs out. The failure of the Congressional "super committee" last year triggered $1.2 trillion in spending cuts to both defense and domestic programs. But Thursday, The Hill reports House Republicans voted to block those cuts to the Pentagon, restoring $72 billion to defense and instead cutting $315 billion from social programs. The House GOP's new plan would include no new taxes, but would cut funding for child care, Meals on Wheels and $35 billion from food stamps over the next 10 years. Fox News has the debate from both sides. "This sequester will decimate our military at a time when our men and women are overseas fighting in a war." "The issue's going to be, do they care more about these tax breaks for the very wealthy, or do they care more about protecting defense spending." Although the plan passed the House, pundits predict it will be dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate. The Morning Joe crew laments what they see as a pointless vote and wasted time in Congress. MIKA BRZEZINSKI: "Is anything getting done here, Heilemann?" JOHN HEILEMANN: "No." BRZEZINSKI: "Mmk. Not one thing?" HEILEMANN: "No." HEILEMANN: "The House passed a bill that will not pass the Senate." MIKA: "Great. A complete waste of time." Although Congress is split over the impending cuts, a survey from The Center for Public Integrity found the public largely in agreement. The majority of those surveyed supported defense spending cuts in excess of the cuts already planned. "... two-thirds of Republicans and nine in 10 Democrats supported making immediate cuts — a position at odds with the leaderships of both political parties. The average total cut was around $103 billion ... while the majority supported cutting it at least $83 billion." Still, The Daily Beast reports Democrats are far from enthusiastic about the $1.2 trillion cuts planned last year. The White House put out a statement urging Congress to work together to find a better deal. The Beast's Patricia Murphy writes: "The president does not have the authority to reverse the cuts on his own, no matter how bad they will be for the military or the sick and elderly. He needs a bill to sign that has been passed by the Republican-led House and the Democratic Senate, something that seems almost impossible today."

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