Senators Paul and Johnson Favor Letting Obama Allocate Cuts

Make the president own the "scary" cuts he's complaining about

While some Republicans are wary of giving President Obama the flexibility to implement sequestration at his discretion, two of the most libertarian senators in the party agree that Congress should make him allocate the spending cuts more efficiently than current law requires.

"Allowing the president the flexibility to move money around? I think it's a good idea," Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told The Washington Examiner after the Republican Steering Committee debated the issue during a members-only meeting in the Capitol. "The thing is, I think he's using scare tactics and emotionalism and really he needs to make some wise decisions. We need to give him the power to not make those decisions."

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., agreed. "It's really the president's job to manage [sequestration]," Johnson, who describes himself as an Ayn Rand Republican, said in an interview after the GOP  meeting. "[T]o manage it efficiently, effectively, to create as little disruption [with] the least amount of pain as opposed to the approach he's taken, [with] the maximum amount of pain."