House OKs social programs cuts to aid Pentagon

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-05/D9UM28T80.htm

By ANDREW TAYLOR The Associated Press May 10, 2012, 4:26PM ET

The GOP-controlled House Thursday passed legislation to replace a looming 10 percent cut to the military budget with cuts to domestic programs like food stamps and health care.

The partisan 218-199 vote sends the measure to the Senate, where it's a dead letter with Democratic leaders, who insist on keeping the automatic cuts in place as leverage to try to force Republicans to agree to a mixture of tax increases and spending cuts to address the nation's deficit woes.

The automatic spending cuts, totaling $110 billion next year, are punishment for the failure of last year's deficit-reduction "supercommittee" to strike a deal. Lawmakers in both parties want to avoid the automatic cuts, but Democrats are strongly opposed to the GOP approach, which slices more than $300 billion from domestic programs over the coming decade to prevent the Pentagon from absorbing a $55 billion blow to its budget next year and also hits domestic agencies with an 8 percent cut to their day-to-day operating budgets.

The measure could actually increase the deficit in the near term by about $24 billion since the spending cuts take effect over time while the automatic cuts are more immediate.