–House Speaker Pledges To Find $100 Billion In FY’11 Spending Cuts
–House Appropriations Chief: Searching For ‘Deep But Manageable Cuts’
–Fed’s Bernanke Urges Hill To Separate Spending Cuts, Debt Limit Hike
By John Shaw
WASHINGTON (MNI) – House Republican leaders, under fierce pressure
from their conservative ranks, are trying to assemble a package of
spending cuts by next week that can meet the GOP’s campaign goal of
securing $100 billion in savings from the fiscal year 2011 budget.
At a briefing Thursday, House Speaker John Boehner said that House
Republicans are working to assemble “the largest cuts possible” for the
fiscal year 2011 spending bill which will come to the House floor next
week.
Boehner appeared to signal that House Republican leaders are trying
to increase their spending cut package beyond the $32 billion in
reductions, below FY’10 levels, that have already been pledged.
Boehner said discussions among House Republicans continue on the
size of the spending cuts. He added the spending bill that comes before
the House next week will include “the largest discretionary spending cut
in history.”
There has always been some ambiguity about what the pledge for $100
billion in spending cuts made during the 2010 mid-term campaign refers
to. Some GOP leaders have said it refers to calendar 2011 as opposed to
fiscal 2011. Others have said it refers to cuts below the level that
President Obama first proposed while others have indicated it is a $100
billion reduction from FY’10 spending.
The House will take up the spending cuts in the context of
considering next week a stop-gap spending bill for FY’11. The current
stop-gap bill expires March 4.
Boehner said that achieving dramatic spending cuts will be an
overarching goal of Republicans in Congress over the next two years.
“You are going to see more spending cuts come out of this Congress than
any in the history of the country,” he said.
“Everything in on the table,” Boehner said.
Later Thursday, Boehner traveled to a conservative conference in
Washington and vowed that House Republicans will meet their campaign
pledge.
“We are going to cut $100 billion in discretionary spending next
week,” he said.
The House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers said in a
statement Thursday that he is seeking to find more spending cuts.
“Our intent is to make deep but manageable cuts in nearly every
area of government, leaving no stone unturned and allowing no agency or
program to be held sacred,” he said.
While House Republicans try to decide what spending cut package can
be passed in the House, Senate Democrats have been more guarded about
how they would like to approach the stop-gap spending bill.
Last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said a House spending
cut proposal of $32 billion was too draconian and would be rejected by
the Senate.
Senate Democrats are likely to be even more resistant to a package
of even deeper spending reductions.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Dan Inouye has said he
does not expect spending issues to be resolved by March 4 and predicted
passage of another short-term funding bill to keep the government fully
operational as talks continue.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad continues to work on a
multi-year bipartisan budget agreement along the lines of the
recommendation of the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction commission.
Conrad has said a deficit reduction plan should be ready when a
debt limit “crunch” occurs on Capitol Hill in May.
During an appearance this week before the House Budget Committee,
Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke continued to urge
policymakers to address long-term fiscal challenges, but on a separate
track from legislation that increases the debt limit.
“I would just prefer that … you put the debt limit issue aside
and just address directly the long-term fiscal issues,” Bernanke said.
He later said that lawmakers should tackle the deficit, but in a
“separate measure” from the debt limit.
** Market News International Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **
[TOPICS: M$U$$$,MFU$$$,MCU$$$]
