SUPER COMMITTEE

Lawmakers Try Debt Loopholes

Republicans propose shifting defense cuts elsewhere.

This doesn't bode well for the deficit supercommittee. Republicans on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees are preparing legislation that would undo the automatic $500 billion in cuts to military programs that will take effect if the deficit panel fails to trim $1.2 trillion from the budget. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina drafted a bill that replaces military cuts with reductions from elsewhere in the budget, plus a 10-percent decrease in pay for members of Congress. Similar measures are being worked out in the House. But House Speaker John Boehner said the automatic cuts, called sequestration, shouldn't be tampered with. “The sequester is ugly,” said Boehner. “Why? Because we don’t want anybody to go there.”