McKeon shoots video attacking Reid on sequestration

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) is out with a new video in his latest attempt to criticize Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) over the automatic cuts to defense due to sequestration.

In the video, set to a sad, melodic piano riff, McKeon says that House Republicans have offered plans to stop sequestration, “but the president maintains a veto threat over them and Harry Reid continues to block them in the Senate.”

“At the same time, they offer no plans of their own,” McKeon says.

McKeon makes the argument that sequestration, the 10-year automatic cut of about $500 billion to both defense and non-defense spending, is happening now, not when it kicks in in January 2013, because companies are preparing for the cuts with layoffs.

“If Sen. Reid doesn’t have a plan of his own, he must allow the Senate to consider one of the other plans that have been introduced,” McKeon says.

Reid has said he is blocking the House-passed budget plan to stop the first year of sequestration cuts to defense through a reconciliation process that has deeper spending cuts to other discretionary spending.

At the same time, senators from both parties say there are ongoing informal discussions throughout the Senate to find a solution to sequestration, as well as the George W. Bush-era tax rates and the debt ceiling, all of which loom at year's end.

McKeon has proposed a separate plan to delay sequestration for one year with a 10 percent cut to the federal workforce, but no Democrats have joined onto his bill.

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