Nelson Predicts Congress Will Agree Before Sequestration Deadline
Monday, February 25, 2013
By: Nicole Creston

February 25, 2013 | WMFE - Florida Democratic US Senator Bill Nelson says he believes the automatic federal budget cuts known as sequestration will not happen. But, he says, Congress is likely to be locked in a partisan fight all this week, right up until Friday's deadline.

Nelson says Senate members have already proposed a sequester-replacement bill that, among other measures, slashes $28 billion out of the federal budget by cutting outdated agricultural subsidies.

But he says political theatre and rigid ideology will push sequestration talks to the eleventh hour.

“There’s nobody that can justify agricultural subsidies that have outlived their usefulness. So at the end of the day, that’s what’ll pass," Nelson says. "But we’re going to go through all these gyrations in the meantime."

Many Republicans say they’re opposed to the bill’s provision that would raise taxes on some people with incomes over $1 million.