WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior House Democrat is proposing to eliminate pending automatic spending cuts while also trimming the government's budget in hopes of paving the way for a broader agreement over how to tame the federal deficit.
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., says legislation he will introduce Wednesday makes a modest contribution to deficit reduction by trimming $167 billion in national security spending and $153 billion in domestic spending over the next eight years, beginning in 2014.
More significantly, he says, the bill shuts off the across-the-board spending cuts mandated over the next several months, which the Obama administration and most lawmakers agree will be damaging because of their arbitrary nature.
Smith, who is the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, says he knows his legislation will be a difficult sell.
