Republicans Shift Burden to Avoid Defense Cuts

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama is applying pressure on Republicans to negotiate a fiscal deal, arguing that GOP leaders have rejected his past attempts to strike a bigger and more comprehensive bargain. “They have had trouble saying yes to a number of repeated offers,” Obama said during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” show that aired Sunday.

Republicans don't want military spending and Democrats don't want cuts in social programs. The best thing to do would be doubling or tripling the cuts, but compromise tends to work in the other direction. Thus one should not be surprised by this can-kicking idea: Republicans Propose Job Freeze to Avert Defense Cuts

Over the past few weeks, we've been writing about the GOP's shift away from hardcore budget-slashing to a broader agenda of economic growth and job creation. 

A important shift in the Republicans’ negotiating stance over the austerity fight (do we go Dem lite or Republican high test?) was duly noted in the Financial Times a day ago, but a search in Google News (“debt ceiling”) suggests a lot of other commentators have not yet digested its significance, so it seemed worthy of a short recap here.

The Dividend Pig submits:No matter who takes the White House in the next election, there is agreement on one issue: There will be spending cuts. Whether it's the draconian cuts of the Republicans or milder cuts from the Democrats, it seems rather certain that the government will be spending less money in the coming years.

Tom Lydon submits: Defense has traditionally been a sector in which Republicans are loath to make cuts. But a prominent GOP member recently said cuts to defense are “on the table,” raising questions about what such cuts would mean for defense ETFs. Concerns that defense spending would be slashed was enough to turn Goldman Sachs bearish on defense stocks and tell its clients that the defense spending outlook is worse than they might think.