Morning Joe   |  February 27, 2013

Why Senate GOP is considering giving sequester power to POTUS

Politico Playbook: "Senate Republicans are circulating a draft bill that would cancel $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts and instead turn over authority to President Barack Obama to achieve the same level of savings under a plan to be filed by March 8," write Politico's Manu Raju and David Rogers. Mike Allen joins Morning Joe to discuss.

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>> geist at the one "p" table. he's going to be asking you some questions about "politico."

>> just to make up for it, happy wednesday.

>> boom.

>> we'll take that. let's talk a little business. "politico" this morning, you guys are talking about senate republicans rolling out a new tactic to force the white house 's hand dealing with the sequestration. the plan would cancel the existing across-the-board cuts set to go in two days and put the president in charge of coming up with the same $85 billion in savings himself no later than march 8th , which is a week from friday. congress could overturn the president's plan but only with a two-thirds majority in both the house and the senate to prevail over a presidential veto. explain it a little bit.

>> i think we need liam to explain it to us. but what it shows is two things. one is that congress is just desperate to have this cut passed from them. it used to be congress is very jealous of the power of the purse . here they're happy to give it up. second, the other thing, republicans have no plan. they know that they're getting hammered. every focus group they get, every poll they get, shows that they're taking the blame. and yet they have this plan which is backed by senate leadership. conservative senators have another plan. none of them have enough votes. you can go on with your life. the cuts are going to happen friday. but this shows that they know that they are going to get in trouble.

>> hammered. yeah.

>> so what happens, mike? so the cuts go into effect friday. let's assume they do for now. how does this get resolved, or does it get resolved next week? the week after? the month after?

>> probably in that month. coming up march 27th when a spending bill, that's like the window to fix it. you talk to these republicans, they want to fight. they don't want to make a deal now. leaders say they have no way of selling a deal to their guys now. but in that month of march when people start to feel it, whether it's the lines for travel or whether they're turning out the lights on the statue of liberty or whatever it done, that's when there's going to be some pressure to fix it.

>> but is there a reason to believe that they will fix it? i mean, they couldn't fix it now. they set this deadline and they can't do it now. so why will they be able to fix it a month from now?

>> right now it's in the sort of talking stage. and when people start to feel it, when they can see it, when washington is not working, then there's pressure. and there will also be pressure from the white house to deal. you talk to the white house , they're concerned about the effect on consumer confidence . what this could do for the economy. and in most of america, there's one politician people know. and that's barack obama . and we've talked about this before. when washington is not working in a very visible, tangible way, that's not good for obama.

>> all right.

>> all right.

>> mike allen with one "p." the front man for one