House Republicans are moving to unravel the debt-ceiling deal struck last summer, pushing a proposal Thursday to spare the military from painful budget cuts that were triggered by lawmakers' failure to figure out how to tackle the deficit.
The Pentagon faces more than $500 billion in budget cuts over the next decade, thanks to the failure of the so-called "supercommittee" last fall to agree on a deficit-reducing plan. Non-military portions of the budget also face massive cuts -- this punishment was baked into the law, which allowed for the debt-ceiling increase last summer, as an incentive for Democrats and Republicans to strike their own deal, since the fallback cuts were so disagreeable to both sides.
But even with this punishment hanging over their heads, lawmakers still could not reach a compromise.
On the heels of that negotiation collapse, House Republicans began to debate a proposal Thursday to shift around a portion of those planned cuts -- largely sparing the military from the full brunt of the impact.
The GOP proposal is estimated to be worth about $242 billion in savings over 10 years -- to do that, it cuts into entitlements spending as well as other areas, something Democrats oppose. The Pentagon would not be entirely spared from cuts, but the GOP plan effectively takes the budget ax off cruise control and puts somebody in the driver's seat.
"It would decimate our military at the very moment when our men and women are over fighting in Afghanistan," Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., chairman of the House Budget Committee, said of the original plan. "So what we're saying is we don't want to lose the savings. We just need to cut the government spending in other places of government."
But Democrats, who are pushing an alternative plan, say Republicans want to make cuts in all the wrong places.
"They have a totally lopsided approach," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., accusing Republicans of protecting special interests at the expense of the poor. "The result is they whack everybody else."
The dispute may amount to little more than a political statement at this stage. In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid says the bill will not pass unless tax increases are also part of the mix.
And the White House has issued a veto threat over the Republican bill.
An administration statement released Wednesday evening said the bill "would impose deep budget cuts that cost jobs and hurt middle-class and vulnerable Americans."
Fox News' Chad Pergram contributed to this report.
