Just when you thought sequestration was working.....

http://breakingdefense.com/2014/06/stunned-by-cantors-loss-hasc-leaders-will-still-battle-sequestration-rep-rogers/



Stunned By Cantor’s Loss, HASC Leaders Will Still Battle Sequestration: Rep. Rogers
By Colin Clark on June 11, 2014 at 4:19 PM

CAPITOL HILL: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor isn’t physically absent from here yet, but he is close to politically dead after last night’s stunning political defeat by a little known Tea Party supporter from the southern Virginia constituency.

I spoke to half a dozen close watchers of defense politics this morning and all but one of them — a particularly devout Republican — agreed that Cantor fell because he had lost touch with his constituents. This wasn’t about the Tea Party, most of them said, though several thought it may be an indicator of a coming right-wing shift in the November elections.

Most important to the defense community is what effect Cantor’s political neutering may mean to sequestration come its return in 2016. The GOP’s House Majority Leader was said to be a strong supporter of neutralizing the defense cuts required as part of the automatic budget reductions. I asked Rep. Mike Rogers, the somewhat brash chairman of the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, at a breakfast this morning how Cantor’s political murder would shape sequestration.

First he said he wasn’t sure, as he and his colleagues were “still shell shocked” from the fact of Cantor’s defeat. After a brief pause he wound back up and pointed to the Bipartisan Budget Act’s lifting of sequestration for two years, saying it got passed because HASC members ”were not going to vote for a deal.” That block will remain united, he said. After the November elections the defense lawmakers will remain staunch in their opposition. “Whoever is majority leader, we are not going to go along with a deal for defense cuts,” he said.