President Barack Obama is launching a new effort to dial back the spending cuts. He’s highlighting the issue on Thursday evening when he meets with House Democrats at a retreat in Philadelphia. And the budget blueprint he’ll unveil on Monday will call on Congress to do away with the controversial billions of dollars in automatic spending cuts that went into effect in 2013 after lawmakers failed to reach a budget agreement.
Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle are quick to acknowledge that there are better ways to rein in the deficit than another round of drastic across-the-board cuts to defense and non-defense spending, scheduled to kick in this fall. But any path to a budget compromise will once again expose the deep ideological divide between Democrats and Republicans on how to cut the deficit.
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For Democrats, who argue the economy could have made bigger strides were it not for sequestration, one big question is how hard to push for higher non-discretionary spending. Many have made the case that Republicans’ insistence on deep spending cuts have choked off funding to programs critical to long-term economic growth, in areas like research, education and infrastructure.
“For too long, the draconian cuts of the sequester have strangled our investments to keep America No. 1 in the global economy and to ensure our national security,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday.
