Rigell pitches sequestration solution

“Eighty percent of our conference is wrapped around Grover Norquist,” Rigell said of his fellow House Republicans’ relationship with the American Taxpayer Union’s Norquist, whose pledge to not raise taxes has chained Republicans in budget negotiations, critics say.

“I think he’s the man behind the curtain in the ‘Wizard of Oz,'” Rigell told the Washington Examiner.

Rigell, acting “out of a sense of duty,” has proposed the America First Act, an ambitious, lengthy piece of legislation aimed at eliminating 75 percent of the sequester cuts triggered by the Budget Control Act of 2011, a law for which Rigell voted.

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Asked if he regretted his original vote, Rigell said he did not given the options at the time and the fiscal conditions in that period.

America First would restore 75 percent of the sequester cuts, and would enact provisions recommended by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles Commission, notably “chained CPI,” a method of calculating inflation that would lead to smaller annual increases for Social Security payments.

Rigell was dismissive of those in the “we-ought-to-be” caucus, possibly alluding to the hardline House Freedom Caucus. “What are the solutions? I’m livid.”

Some critics have charged that the chained CPI is a “gimmick,” or that it will erode Social Security and Medicare payouts.

“It does mean that after retirement your payments grow more slowly, about 0.3 percent each year. So if you retire at 65, your income at 75 would be 3 percent less under this proposal than under current law … this is not good,” economist and liberal New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote in 2012.

Simpson-Bowles provisions are generally hit from the right for increasing taxes, and from the left for cutting entitlements.

Rigell’s bill also features a repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s medical device tax. When asked if that could thwart his bill’s chances with Democrats and the president, Rigell said the inclusion of such a provision was necessary for a true compromise — to assuage conservatives. But the provision has also been supported by dozens of Democrats.

Rigell represents a coastal Virginia district that includes Virginia Beach and Norfolk, where four aircraft carriers are stationed. According to Rigell’s website, the second district of Virginia boasts the “largest concentration of military personnel of any congressional district in the nation and contains the largest naval base in the world, Naval Station Norfolk.”

While Rigell has local reasons for wanting to end the sequester, he also argues the failure to reach a spending deal reveals a dangerous inability to compromise. “Compromise is the only thing that makes the republic function,” he said.

Asked about his bill’s chances, Rigell said, “I don’t see how another bill could be crafted” to end the sequester cuts.