As Tea Party activists rallied across the street from the Capitol, Republican leaders pledged they would fight to include $61 billion in budget cuts in a funding deal needed to prevent a government shutdown. The latest negotiations between Democrats and Republicans are centered around a compromise that would cut just $33 billion from this year’s budget, which runs through September. But that number is not sitting well with many in the GOP, who pledged during last year’s campaign to cut deeper.
Fiscally conservative Republicans, including dozens of freshmen backed by the Tea Party, have signaled they do not want to accept a budget deal with less than the $61 billion in cuts passed earlier by the House and they are pressuring House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to hold out for more.
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“We want to be as bold as we can,” said Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill., a conservative freshman and Tea Party activist. “There is a strong sentiment that this fight is not inconsequential. Everybody I’m talking to on this side of the aisle is saying we are ready to have a fight on that number – $61 billion.”
Boehner is trying to appear responsive to the demands of his rank-and-file, even while negotiating with Democrats. After Democrats claimed the two sides settled on $33 billion in cuts, Boehner told reporters Thursday no deal was imminent.
“We are going to fight for what we passed in the House,” Boehner said.
But Boehner also signaled to conservatives within his own party that a compromise would have to be reached because Democrats control the Senate and White House.
The two parties are also struggling to reach a deal on policy riders Republicans want to include in the budget bill. Among those provisions is one that would defund the health care reform law. Another provision would strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Republicans also want language included that would stop federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
Some Republicans believe the final deal will hinge on those policy provisions, which Democrats are resisting.
“I think it’s going to depend on what riders are in it, as much as anything,” said Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., a member of the House Appropriations Committee.
Just steps from the Senate side of the Capitol, Tea Party activists gathered to denounce the negotiations. Many came in buses from across the country and carried signs calling for the Republicans to uphold their campaign pledge to drastically cut federal spending.
“The election in November was a mandate for them to stop spending and they are not doing it,” said Janet Cook, who boarded a bus in Pittsburgh at 5:30 a.m. to make it to the rally. Boehner, she said, “needs to be tougher.”
“We can’t be offering to make deals,” she added. “We have no money. It has to stop.”
Democrats accused the GOP of being pulled from the negotiating table by the Tea Party, who Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., described as “radical” and “unrealistic.”
But GOP leaders embraced the activists and several appeared at the rally, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who said the Tea Party demands, “sound pretty reasonable.”
Lawmakers have until April 8 before the latest temporary funding measure expires and the government shuts down.
