|
Bloomburg
Report...
`Mini-Revolt’
Confronts Republicans as U.S. Lawmakers Ready Spending Cuts
By Catherine Dodge - Feb 8, 2011
Photo: Georgia Republican
Jack Kingston said, “We are going to be accused of hating children,
seniors, clean air and all of the above, so you might as well come out
all at once out of the box and say ‘this is what I am trying to do.’”
Photographer: Stephen Morton/Getty Images
As House Republicans parry Democratic criticism that they’ve gone too
far with proposed spending cuts, they confront a battle within their
own ranks over whether the cuts go far enough.
A faction of House Republicans plans to continue pushing for bigger
budget savings than party leaders recommended last week, reductions
that Democrats argue would harm the U.S. economic recovery.
Republicans won control of the House in November on promises to slash
government spending by $100 billion this year. Leaders backed off that
pledge, offering a plan they will take up next week that trims 2011
spending by $35 billion, in part because the fiscal year already is
almost half over. The cuts are $58 billion less than President Barack
Obama requested for non-security discretionary spending.
The House Republicans pushing for the full $100 billion in cuts aren’t
buying their leadership’s reasoning.
“We are going to be accused of hating children, seniors, clean air and
all of the above, so you might as well come out all at once out of the
box and say ‘this is what I am trying to do,’” said Representative Jack
Kingston, a Georgia Republican and member of the Appropriations
Committee. “Many members feel like, ‘now, you said $100 billion.’”
In addition to pushing for the full $100 billion in cuts, the
Republican Study Committee wants to roll back non-defense discretionary
spending next year to 2006 levels for 10 years, beyond the 2008 levels
Republican leaders have called for this year.
‘Mini-Revolt’
House Republican leaders “seem to have a little mini- revolt within
their party,” said Robert Bixby, head of the Washington-based Concord
Coalition, which promotes balanced budgets. “This could be a real
problem for them, trying to tamp down some unrealistic expectations on
how fast you can bring the deficit under control.”
The proposal to return to 2006 funding levels would mean reductions of
about 40 percent in a decade for financing education programs, cancer
research, national parks and FBI agents, said James Horney, director of
federal fiscal policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
“The American people would be horrified by cuts like that,” Horney said.
A spokesman for the Republican Study Committee, Brian Straessle, said
the group’s plan doesn’t identify any specific percentage cuts for
programs, and lawmakers can set their own priorities on where to make
reductions.
‘La La Land’
Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, who heads the Republican Study
Committee, said that only in the “La La Land of Washington” would his
group’s proposed cuts be considered drastic.
“Back home in Ohio, western Ohio, the area I represent, people are
saying of course you should get $100 billion in savings,” he said.
Jordan called the Republican leaders’ push for spending cuts “a great
start.” Still, Jordan said, “We’re going to push for more.”
Republican Study Committee members intend to offer their proposed
spending reductions on the House floor when lawmakers debate a measure
to fund federal agencies through the rest of the fiscal year, which
ends Sept. 30. A current stopgap measure to keep the government running
expires March 4.
The debate will follow the Feb. 14 release of Obama’s proposed fiscal
2012 budget. Obama has called for a five-year freeze on discretionary
spending outside of national security.
House Republican leaders, after announcing the overall spending
shrinkage they set for various areas, plan to release specific cuts
later this week. Under the caps, transportation and housing programs
would see cuts of 17 percent, while health and education programs would
be reduced by 4 percent.
‘Harm the Economy’
The ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee, Chris Van Hollen of
Maryland, said such cuts would “harm the economy and put more people
out of work.”
The Republican leadership plan would peg total 2011 appropriations at
$1.055 trillion, compared with last year’s $1.091 trillion and the
$1.128 trillion the administration had requested. The government’s
total budget, including entitlements such as Medicare and Social
Security, is $3.7 trillion. The government’s budget deficit will widen
this year to $1.5 trillion, the Congressional Budget Office estimated
last month.
“For us to get our fiscal house in order, we’re going to have to make
cuts to just about everything,” said Representative Mick Mulvaney, a
South Carolina Republican who in November defeated Democrat John
Spratt, the former Budget Committee chairman. “The 2006 funding levels
were not draconian. The government was fat and happy back then.”
Mulvaney is among the more than 70 of 87 new House Republicans who
joined the Republican Study Committee, which has 175 members, more than
half of the 242 Republicans in the chamber.
The freshmen “are on a mission to fix things,” Jordan said. “They came
here understanding the same old, same old isn’t going to work. It’s
time to drastically reduce spending.”
Read it at Bloomburg
|
|
|
|
