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I do not want government by crisis and neither do the American people. We're all tired of it. We need to get back to regular order. Since I've been in Congress, the House passed a budget and took steps to replace the across-the-board cuts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                             Contact:        Brian Baluta, 202-225-6155

February 26, 2013                                                     

WASHINGTON, D.C.– Congressman Mark Amodei (NV-2) today issued the following statement regarding the pending across-the-board sequester cuts:

“I do not want government by crisis and neither do the American people. We’re all tired of it. We need to get back to regular order. Since I’ve been in Congress, the House passed a budget and took steps to replace the across-the-board cuts of the sequester with smart cuts, targeting wasteful spending. We passed two bills last year -- HR 5652 and HR 6684 -- that would eliminate the FY 2013 sequester and reduce the deficit by $237 billion. They are notable in that they offered  savings to accomplish the fiscal reductions while not creating catastrophic and sudden cuts to shock all concerned, as well as the local and national economies. 

“In response to those efforts, the Senate and the President came back with exactly nothing. Not ‘No.’ Not ‘No, but here is the Senate's or administration's idea.’ They simply chose not to react in any aspect until, as is happening now, a crisis can be generated with copious amounts of political blame to force an agreement to continue to spend and increase taxes. So now, in the eleventh hour, the President offers only continued spending and another $600 billion round of tax increases 75 days after the last $680 billion tax increase.

“This strategy, rolled out time and again, where people's livelihoods are blatantly used to drive an emergency cry for continued spending and taxes, is in my view, the height of disrespect to the middle class. I acknowledge the impacts, which are imminently avoidable. I do not believe Nevada or the country should be subjected to these shallow tactics.

“The House has acted multiple times to avoid the sequester and in a timely manner. The administration's reply, to do nothing until an emergency exists and then indicate that their solution, the only solution, is to undo two-year-old cuts and increase taxes, is the height of callousness toward middle class America and to the notion of anything resembling an open and transparent policy process.

“The government spent $3.538 trillion in FY 2012 and will spend even more in FY 2013. You’re telling me the President and the Senate can’t find $85 billion or about two cents on the dollar of the federal budget to reduce in a responsible way? Instead the President is traveling around the country using scare tactics about how his administration will implement the cuts rather than work with Congress to get this right. This is no way to govern. And it reflects another kind of deficit – a leadership deficit.”

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