When Republicans vote Tuesday on a resolution aimed at lowering federal spending, it will be just the beginning of a debate over how much Congress should cut from the budget in its quest to reduce the nation’s staggering deficit. The House on Monday began debate on a resolution titled “Reducing Non-Security Spending to FY 2008 Levels or Less.”
The measure directs the House Budget Committee to cap spending for fiscal 2011, which has only seven months remaining, at 2008 levels. Such a move would likely require cuts of at least 20 percent in all non-defense, domestic spending that excludes entitlements like Social Security and Medicare.
The resolution is expected to easily pass the Republican-led House just hours before President Obama delivers a State of the Union address in which he is likely to tack to the political center and focus on jobs and the economy. Though it’s not clear how Obama will address the deficit and spending cuts, Republicans want to send the message that a smaller budget is their priority.
It’s the “Or Less” part of the resolution, however, that seems to have created uncertainty in both parties, as Democrats look to stave off even deeper cuts and Republicans struggle to fulfill their pledge to slash $100 billion in federal spending this year without looking too draconian.
The GOP’s $100 billion goal can’t be reached by turning back the clock on spending to 2008 levels, so some Republicans are suggesting Congress go further back in time — to even lower spending levels used in 2006.
The fiscally conservative Republican Study Committee, which includes many of the new members who won their seats in Congress with Tea Party support, has proposed reducing spending to 2006 levels, which would save $2.28 trillion over the next decade.
“I was elected, like virtually all of my classmates in this huge freshman class, to get serious, to get very serious about spending,” Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill., a co-sponsor of the bill, said. “We all know why we were sent here.”
The GOP leadership has been vague about how much they intend to cut, but their resolution would allow for the spending levels to be set below 2008 levels.
“We have to do what we said were going to do, and we said we were going to reduce spending to ’08 levels,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said Monday. “But I, too, am interested in finding out how we can cut spending in this town, not increase it, which is why we have instructed in this resolution … to look at [2008 levels] as a cap.”
Asked if slashing down to 2006 levels was politically and practically possible, Cantor said, “We committed prior to the election that we would reduce discretionary spending to ’08 levels. If the will of the House is such, if there are 218 votes to deliver on an ’06 level, then, so be it.”
