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Foxnews...
Battle Over Budget
Cuts Raises Specter of Federal Government Shutdown
By L.A. Holmes
Published February 11, 2011
Fox News Photo: Rep. Tim Scott, R-S.C., warns that a government
shutdown is ‘on the table’ if Republicans and Democrats can’t agree on
spending cuts.
A government shutdown is on the table if Congress fails to reach an
agreement on spending cuts, a freshman GOP congressman told Fox News on
Friday, making him one of the few Republicans to publicly raise the
possibility.
“I think nothing’s off the table at this point,” Rep. Tim Scott of
South Carolina said, warning that uncontrolled spending will inevitably
lead to an impasse -- and ultimately a shutdown.
“Can the American government sustain the level of spending that we have
today?” Scott asked. “There’s no question that a shutdown is coming,
whether we do it today or whether we do it in 20 years.”
Senate Democrats and House Republicans are currently at loggerheads
over the size of a long-term spending bill designed to fund the
government through the end of the fiscal year. House Republicans
unveiled $100 billion in cuts Friday to that bill, which is expected to
come up for votes in both chambers next week in the form of a
seven-month measure known as a continuing resolution. The language of
the 359-page House bill was posted late Friday.
Scott’s warnings come despite assertions from House leadership and
other Republicans that they do not want these ongoing budget
negotiations to result in a government shutdown.
“I don’t know anybody who’s talking about that as something they
desire,” Republican Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson, a member of the House
Budget and Appropriations committees, told Fox News.
But those assertions fall short of a guarantee from House Republicans
that the leadership would not permit the government to shut down, which
has many Democrats on edge.
“Leading Republicans are still threatening to shut down the government
if they don’t get everything they want – which includes taking cops off
the street and cutting financial aid for college instead of cutting
waste and excess, like $20 billion in government giveaways to oil
companies that are currently raking in record profits,” Jon Summers,
spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., wrote in a
statement released late Friday.
Republican leaders pledged to cut $100 billion from President Obama’s
fiscal year 2011 budget, which was never passed. The federal government
has been operating on short-term spending bills since last October, and
the $100 billion in proposed cuts come despite the fact that half the
budget year is gone.
New Jersey Rep. Robert Andrews led a group of Democrats in a news
conference Friday decrying such cuts.
“America won’t grow if America won’t learn, and America won’t learn
with 30 percent cuts to education,” Andrews said.
“We need to cut, we need to grow, but let’s do it responsibly,” Rep.
Tim Bishop, D-N.Y., added.
Republicans acknowledge that they may not get every cut they’ve
outlined but hold some cuts are necessary to restore fiscal discipline.
“That’s the risk you run,” said Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the
fiscally conservative Republican Study Committee. “But that’s how we do
things in America. This is the process that’s in place, so let’s play
it out. Right now what I’m saying is, things are headed in the right
direction.”
The federal government is currently funded through a continuing
resolution that expires March 4. If Congress fails to either approve
the longer-term spending bill or pass another stopgap by the expiration
date, most government operations will cease until more funding is
approved—Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner released new projections
last week that the federal government would run out of money between
April 5 and May 3 were that to happen.
In 1995, Republicans in Congress reached an impasse with President
Clinton over elements of the Democratic president’s fiscal year 1996
budget, which resulted in a government shutdown after a short-term
continuing resolution in mid-November.
Threatening a government shutdown is a risky game of chicken for
Republicans to play— in 1995, public opinion generally sided with
Clinton.
Read it at Foxnews
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