Republican Rep. Trey Radel singled out Senate Democrats Friday as being responsible for not only the sequester but a series of other budget issues because they have failed to "get off their butts" and do "their damn jobs."
Apparently following the lead of House Speaker John Boehner, who referred rather crudely this week to Senate Democrats sitting on their "asses," the Florida freshman expressed a bit of anger in a Newsmax TV interview that Democrats have been preaching compromise and bipartisanship while actually working to make compromise more difficult.
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"What I hope in the big picture is that the American public is finally waking up and seeing that while House Republicans, who’ve been called crazy, the party of no, etc., we’re only one half of one third of this big picture," Radel said. "We need Democrats to get off their butts, do their damn jobs, and then we can begin to move the country forward.”
With the midnight deadline approaching when $85 billion in automatic, across-the-board spending cuts will begin to be implemented, Radel sought to play down the impact they could have on government operations and the daily lives of Americans. He said the cuts had been overhyped, given that the total dollars involved represent only 2 percent of the federal budget.
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“Just think about that . . . That’s like cutting two pennies out of your budget at home. But the president goes touring around the country, campaigning and fear mongering, telling everybody that the world is going to end,” he said.
"We wouldn’t have these manufactured, crazy crisis situations month after month, year after year if Senate Democrats did their job, which is help us create and pass a budget.”
Radel, who was not in Congress when the 2011 Budget Control Act setting up the sequester was passed, said he would have favored a different approach if he had been around because the legislation is an admission that Congress can’t do its job.
In addition to a real budget, he said Congress should also work on simplifying the tax code as soon as possible to give individuals and businesses more certainty about future tax liabilities.
As many of his GOP colleagues have done, Radel joined the chorus in accusing President Barack Obama of fear mongering in his efforts to saddle Republicans with blame for the looming cuts.
“House Republicans passed two pieces of legislation to take the edge off the president’s argument that people are going to feel pain, that you’ll wait longer at the airport and pay more for your food because food inspectors would be cut,” he said.
“House Republicans said we don’t need to cut personnel on the front lines that affect your everyday life, let’s just cut spending. We could still achieve the same means to an end," he added.
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