House GOP Releases Bill To Cut Spending By $60 Billion

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans filed a bill Friday evening proposing $60 billion in spending cuts for current levels and hundreds of millions of dollars in funding reductions for education and programs that help families pay their rent. With government shutdown a looming threat--funding runs out on March 4--House Republicans said they would continue to push for deeper cuts to meet the promises laid out in their Pledge to America, even if it means passing a bill that will be defeated or limited by the Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has called threats of government shutdown "extreme" and said the Senate will not lie down and accept all of the House GOP's severe spending cuts. "You can lose a lot of weight by cutting off your arms and legs," he said on Thursday. "But no doctor would recommend it."

The continuing resolution introduced on Friday would drastically reduce funding for many government programs, including NASA and state and local law enforcement. The Department of Education would see a funding cut of about $4.9 billion under the bill, with nearly $1.4 billion coming from grants for state training and employment programs. The bill would also remove $715 million from funds for the Department of Housing and Urban Development's rental assistance program, which is already unable to help many of the 7.1 million low-income households found to be in a "worst-case" housing situation in a HUD report released on Friday.

Some of the cuts were directed at long-time targets of Republican ire, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, which would see a $60 million cut under the bill, $16 million of which will be eliminated from climate protection activities. The bill also would create a funding limitation that would prevent the EPA from prohibiting or restricting emissions. The health care law, another frequent Republican target, would be given reduced spending for community health centers, the National Health Service Corps, and the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant.

The bill also includes a few increases, most notably in defense. It would increase funding for the Department of Defense by $8.1 billion, and would give $312 million more for nuclear weapons infrastructure than 2010 funding.

With only a few weeks to pass a bill, House Republicans acknowledged on Friday that they may be forced to enact a short-term continuing resolution at current funding levels instead, allowing the two chambers more time to duke it out over the level of cuts. The two chambers must eventually agree on a resolution--or continue short-term continuing resolutions at the current level--to prevent government shutdown.

"Leadership does not want a government shutdown," Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), head of the Appropriations subcommittee on Interior and the Environment. "Could it ultimately end up there? Sure, it's possible. But most people realize it's going to take us some time to try to get a conference report."

At the same time, though, the House leadership faces a conservative faction that says they will not accept less than $100 billion in cuts, the figure promised in the GOP's Pledge to America in September. The House leadership faced a revolt this week when conservative freshmen rebelled over the original plan for the continuing resolution, which would have cut $74 billion from the never-enacted 2011 budget proposed by President Barack Obama. That proposal would have eliminated about $32 billion in spending. On Thursday, House Republicans announced they would instead introduce a continuing resolution that would cut $100 billion from Obama's never-enacted 2011 budget, amounting to about $60 billion in cuts from current levels.

Freshman Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) said on Friday that he told leadership he would not vote for a continuing resolution that introduced less than $100 billion in cuts. "We've got to hold people accountable," he told reporters off of the House floor. "You've got to step out there and take these bold and aggressive moves."

Still, he said there would not be a government shutdown over the continuing resolution. "The government's not going to shut down, and I think one of the things we've got to look at is, the president is the CEO of this corporation called the United States of America," West told reporters on Friday afternoon.

Earlier in the afternoon, Democrats promised to fight to prevent cuts to education. "We cannot let the dreams and aspirations of the young people of this nation fall victim to the positions of the more extreme elements of this Republican caucus," Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) said at a press conference.

Click here for a full list of proposed cuts.

Comments

[MCTSilverlakeCA]

02:59 AM on 04/13/2011

I have a great idea -- let's make the Senate and Congressional seats unpaid salary jobs -- i.e. Volunteers. Let's limit terms to 2 years and make that mandatory. Let's cut every Perk of Office out except free housing for the Senator or Congressman while in office - and transportation back & forth between Washinton DC and their home state. Let's prevent any Lobbying. Guess how much THAT will all save?

[Jacob007]

02:03 PM on 03/10/2011

Must explain Why Congressman David Dreier won't designate the post office in La Verne Ca. for PFC. Hiltz killed in Iraq 2007. Yet he gross 30 million as a CONGRESSMAN.

[leonel]

04:13 PM on 02/16/2011

The battle for budget reform will be long and painful. Defense needs to be cut at least 100 billion per year. No more nuke submarines, cut NATO, finish Af-Pac War.

Start a long process to inform the public that Social Security and the medical programs are funded like a Ponzi scheme, i.e., the money was not invested but spend. Technically invested in federal bonds, but not there either.

The public wants something for nothing, what sucks in people to invest in Ponzi schemes. But here the federal government will just have to be "convicted and told to pay restitution." This restitution will only be in part because the money would have to come out of tax payers anyway.

So the retirees will not likely get what they initially expected but the problem will be solved over a number of years. The realistic justice is that they did not actually pay enough to get the generous benefits they were promised.

[Downix]

01:27 AM on 02/17/2011

So, your goal is to fill the publics head with a giant lie. Got it.

Social Security is no ponzi scheme, it is an insurance policy, and works like every other insurance policy does.

[ElKabongJr]

01:09 PM on 02/16/2011

I am disgusted by the duplicitous nature of all politicians.....you tell ordinary people they have to wait an extra hour at a bus stop, or not find a library open, or wait till there are enough sanitation workers available to pick up the garbage, all while charging property taxes at an unheralded level, meanwhile the richest people in the United States have Ben Bernanke supplying them with whatever they need to invest in the emerging markets all while there is virtually no taxation of the large corporations and the wealthy....in fact they just extended the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest......BUT THE ORDINARY AMERICAN HAS TO SUFFER.....hey....why is it 95 percent of the population has to suffer the cuts to service while the top five percent suffer nothing at all, and in fact have nearly all their investments guaranteed by the government???? The super rich are not beyond taking a bailout, or zero interest rates, or artificial stimulus, but they are beyond suffering like the rest of us!!! WHY IS THAT? You think maybe their votes are worth fifty times what ours are?

[kengault]

01:14 PM on 02/14/2011

NASA Chief Charles Bolden announced that from now on the primary mission of America's space agency would be to improve relations with the Muslim world. Come again? Bolden said he got the word directly from the President. "He wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science and math and engineering."

So NASA now has a new priority, and a good one too! That Obama is one smart cookie.

[Downix]

01:32 AM on 02/17/2011

No, he didn't announce that as a primary mission. You quoted him directly, and he did not say that. Your prejudices are showing.

The Muslim world is 1/3rd of the world, and is under-represented in space programs. As a result, they have turned inward, and are developing their own technologies for space exploration. To ignore this is to only invite a rivalry in space. With the second busiest spaceport in the world within a Muslim nation, the Baikonur launch site, and with Iran also having joined the space race to ignore the growing Islamic presence beyond our atmosphere is foolish, especially as once the shuttle stands down, our only access will be through an Islamic country. (The Russian Soyuz launches from Kazakhstan, an Islamic state)

[kengault]

10:58 AM on 02/17/2011

Once again I will quote directly.

"When I became the NASA administrator - or before I became the NASA administrator - he (Obama) charged me with three things. One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science...and math and engineering." He also said:

--"NASA is not only a space exploration agency, but also an Earth improvement agency."

--"We're not going to go anywhere beyond low Earth orbit as a single entity. The United States can't do it."

Hey Downix...We've already gone beyond low Earth orbit as a single entity. It was called Apollo. So it's not true that we "can't" do it alone. Bolden should be a straight-up kind of guy and admit that he and the President have made a choice, i.e., to make the U.S. dependent on others in space.

[kengault]

11:01 AM on 02/17/2011

And in response to the Muslim world turning inward:
There was a time when the "Muslim world" was more advanced than the West, especially during the Dark Ages. Problem is the "Muslim world" hasn't advanced much since this time; it hasn't had a Reformation and Renaissance, and is perpetually stuck in its glory days of the 8th-15th centuries...Obama is wonderful and can pat them on the back for their "historic contribution(s)", but their is nothing he can do to escape the fact these contributions are far more "historic(al)" than current. And until the "Muslim world" decides to join the modern world there is nothing anyone can do to legitimately compare them to the West.

[returnofthejedi]

10:59 AM on 02/13/2011

Seems that 60 billion dollars won't do much to bring about this so called "we are going to stop the spending". Of the 60 billion how much is dedicated to corporate welfare? Cut hud funding by 714 million but increasing the defense budget by 1 more dollar renders this a complete and utter failure and disconnect.

[esquilax]

08:17 AM on 02/13/2011

I'm sure I heard BIll Maher use a figure a few nights ago, something along the lines of "The Pentagon spends $93b/pa on parts for already obsolete equipment". Any idea what source he was referring to for that?

[Downix]

01:33 AM on 02/17/2011

The CBO budget breakdown from FY10. I'm more surprised he didn't mention that we pay for 293 golfcourses worldwide out of the Defense budget.

[esquilax]

01:44 AM on 02/17/2011

I really appreciate you popping back to answer my comment. I'm off to find it! ;)

The golf courses might be an eye-opener too!

[mcmutter]

07:43 AM on 02/13/2011

watching cspan

its all redstate goobers calling in ....

[Steamboater]

04:24 AM on 02/13/2011

Both the GOP and Obama are in the process of making cuts that would devastae the most vulnerable. Today's NYTImes has this:
 
 
"Two-thirds of the reductions that Mr. Obama will claim are from cuts in spending, including in many domestic programs that he supports. Among the reductions for just the next fiscal year, 2012, which starts Oct. 1, are more than $1 billion from airport grants and nearly $1 billion from grants to states for water treatment plants and similar projects. Public health and forestry programs would also be cut.
　
Home energy assistance to low-income families and community service block grants would be cut in half, and an initiative to restore the Great Lakes’’ environmental health would be reduced by one-quarter."
　
The most vulnerable get hit again with these heating assistance cuts. For those of you who thought this was BS and only a rumor when published at HP the other day, keep on giving out those free passes. Let’s see how much they keep those left frozen out warm.

[Adam Lundin]

12:34 AM on 02/13/2011

I do not understand GOP cuts to education and health and housing for the hardest hit, of our following society. Did they miss the civics class that told us a happy, healthy and educated population creates a middle class and a rich and vibrant Democracy! Oh silly GOP, when will you learn, and stop following Bears into the woods!

[mcmutter]

09:09 AM on 02/13/2011

the GOP goal is to eradicate the middleclass .. ala Mexico 1950 .. an insanely rich 2% who rule the country .. and 98% peasants ... who are eager workers ...without assets, money or bennies ....

[Downix]

01:34 AM on 02/17/2011

Then they will live with the rich 2%, within walled fortifications living in fear of assasinations or kidnappings.

[DeannaD]

01:57 PM on 02/14/2011

Hear! Hear!

[Markrsm]

09:52 PM on 02/12/2011

Dear Friends,

Wow, we have a 1.5T dollar deficit, and the republicans will fight with the Democrats to cut spending by 60B.

Lets see that is about 4 percent cut in the deficit, so I am thinking this is less than the rounding error that is used to caculate the deficit.

Are you kidding me?

We need to cut 1.5T in spending next year. We can start with cutting military spending by 500B dollars, then we can look at what Mr Paul recommended to cut another 500B dollars of spending, to give us 1T in cuts.

On top of this we need to cut SSA and medicare using a means test, and we need to cut pay across the board for everybody that works for the government by about 20 percent.

Otherwise we are just kidding ourselves.

[braytjr]

10:07 PM on 02/12/2011

Social security has not contributed one cent to the deficit. In fact, social security has bought $2.6 trillion dollars in U.S. treasuries with its surplus funds. We owe that trust fund $2.6, which is not figured into the deficit. You conveniently leave out the best option, raising taxes on the rich and big corporations.

[Markrsm]

11:19 PM on 02/12/2011

Dear Braytjr,

Yes, raise taxes on companies, that will work, see when you increase the costs of labor it will cause companies to hire, yes?

Nope, they will lay off more

[Downix]

01:35 AM on 02/17/2011

Ok, cut SS then also cut the SS taxes, so you actually just increased your deficit more.

SS had not contributed one cent to the debt, it is a self-funded program. It is not on the budget as a result.

[braytjr]

09:38 PM on 02/12/2011

Obama could learn something from the repubs. They know how to negotiate.They demand more than what they expect and usually wind up getting close to what they wanted in the first place. That is why liberals wanted to start healthcare negotiations from a complete takeover of all aspects of healthcare. There was a good chance we could have had single payer or public option.

[mcmutter]

09:02 PM on 02/12/2011

GOP cuts $60 BILLION .....

after they incresed borrowing by $900 BILLION for tax cuts .....

that nets out to a $840 BILLION increase ..... can they do math .......

[Markrsm]

09:53 PM on 02/12/2011

Dear Mcmutter,

New Flash, democrats controlled Senate, House and president signed the tax cut, oops, we forgot about that.

[mcmutter]

07:40 AM on 02/13/2011

but the baggers control the all important house ....

[kyrose777]

09:01 AM on 02/13/2011

have you noticed, those who are not rich still vote GOP? do you think the $ is going to trickle down to them?

[mcmutter]

09:06 AM on 02/13/2011

they are poor but proud ... and evangelical .... poor whites voting the jeebus vote ....

[Carolyn LeBeauf]

08:16 PM on 02/12/2011

They are dreaming.