Sessions: 'Post-modern' Obama never agreed to spending cuts 'in his heart'

Senate Budget Committee ranking member Rep. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on Monday afternoon accused President Obama of not believing in the need to control federal spending, even though Obama signed legislation last year that requires spending reductions over the next 10 years.

Sessions was discussing the Sportsmen's Act, which would require $14 million in new federal spending, and thus, Sessions says, would violate the spending levels set in the Budget Control Act (BCA). Sessions will force a vote later Monday on whether to waive the BCA and allow the bill to be passed, but said he regrets that the president is also not arguing against the bill because it would increase spending.

"Shouldn't he make it clear that he would veto any bill that violates the statutory limits we agreed to? But of course, he's not done so on this bill or any of the other four previous bills that would have violated those spending limits.

"The words in the Budget Control Act, I have to say, appear in his mind to be words he never agreed to in his heart," Sessions continued. "Maybe he agreed to them on paper, maybe he signed the paper, but in his heart, he never wanted to sign that agreement.

"He's post-modern, as you know," he added. "Words are just a momentary thing. They can be reinterpreted a little later to make it say what I always wanted to say in my heart of hearts. That's why this country is in financial trouble, in my opinion."

The Sportsmen's Act combines more than a dozen bipartisan bills aimed at expanding access to federal land for hunters and fishermen. Sessions said he supports most of it, but said it contains Democratic language that appropriates new money, and urged his colleagues not to support it for that reason.

"The BCA limited spending in various accounts as part of an agreement to raise the debt ceiling, the debt limit," he said.

In mid-November, the Obama administration released a Statement of Administration Policy that said the administration supports the bill, S. 3525. But it made no mention of the spending increases in the bill, and the administration has not released an updated statement since then.

Senate Democrats are expected to make a motion to waive the BCA, which Sessions said would amount to a decision to override the spending limits that both parties agreed. Sessions acknowledged that a $14 million override is small compared to the sums Congress usually spends, but said Congress needs to be more principled if it is going to reduce the budget deficit.

"We cannot breach those levels. It is a sick pattern and makes a mockery of law and responsible governing," he said.

Despite Sessions's protest, the Senate is expected to support a waiver of the budget rules, and then approve the bill late Monday afternoon.

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