The point of Dick Cheney's visit is to get lawmakers “ginned up.” Cheney to talk sequester with GOP

Former Vice President Dick Cheney is flying to Washington from Wyoming to talk to top House Republicans about automatic cuts to defense spending, according to senior GOP sources.

Cheney will speak to Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy’s (Calif.) GOP whip team Tuesday evening, and is expected to drop by a meeting of the Elected Leadership Committee, a group that includes Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), McCarthy and other top GOP leaders.


The point of the visit is to get lawmakers “ginned up” about the need to blunt the cuts, a Republican insider said.

Cheney’s visit to Capitol Hill comes as House Republicans launch into a week focused on the Defense sequester — automatic cuts to the Pentagon that took effect because of the failure of the so-called supercommittee in 2011. Republicans voted for the deal that created the cuts, but later tried to reverse them with a bill filled with spending cuts. They‘re now charging that Democrats have no plan to blunt the steep spending decreases.

This week’s floor schedule is centered around the cuts. Republicans will pass the Defense Department’s spending bill, and will try to move legislation by Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) to force the Obama administration to detail the cuts in the automatic spending cuts. Neither bill is expected to become law.

Bringing Cheney to Capitol Hill is a sign Republicans are looking to prominent GOP figures to reinforce the message that the Pentagon cuts must be prevented.

Cheney has deep roots in the House. He served in the lower chamber from 1975 to 1989 and was the House Republican Conference chair, before serving as minority whip between January and March 1989. He was then tapped as Defense secretary under George H.W. Bush.

Unlike George W. Bush, who has remained out of the public eye since 2008, Cheney has been public about his distaste for President Barack Obama’s policies. He also released his memoir in 2011, and recently hosted a fundraiser for Mitt Romney.

Cheney’s appearance before the House whip team puts him in front of a broad swath of the Republican conference. The whip team is a group of several dozen lawmakers — including a slew of freshmen.