Debt Plan Spending-Cut ‘Trigger’ Has Failed in Past
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As they struggle to reach an agreement over how to extend the nation’s debt limit and trim budget deficits, Republicans and Democrats are turning to an enforcement tool, called a “trigger,” with a history of failure.
Republicans are insisting that the trigger would cause across-the-board, automatic spending cuts if Congress comes up short of implementing its own budget reductions. Democrats want the mechanism to force deficit reduction through both cutting expenditures and adding revenue.