Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Sunday characterized the spending cuts mandated under sequestration as “modest.”
“This modest reduction of 2.4 percent in spending over the next six months is a little more than the average American experienced just two months ago, when their own pay went down when the payroll tax holiday expired,” McConnell said during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
McConnell defended his statement when pressed. “Well, but by any objective standard, cutting 2.4 percent out of $3.6 trillion is certainly something we can do.”
McConnell framed the spending cuts as something Congress had promised the American people it would do.
“We’ve got to begin to cut spending,” he said. “And we promised the American people we’d do it a year and a half ago and we’re going to do it.”
