Senate Republicans Press for Deep Cuts in Obama Budget

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans are backing a plan to shave $26 billion from President Barack Obama's budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

In a letter to the spending committee's chairman, Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, the panel's GOP members requested a spending cap at fiscal year 2011 projected levels — $26 billion less than President Obama's submitted budget, according to Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H.

"Over the last two years discretionary spending has increased by 17%, not including stimulus spending. With stimulus spending included the increase soars to 84%," the letter reads, and warns, "We will not . . . be able to support appropriations bills that do not conform to this top-line number."

If a budget isn’t passed, Democrats will need to set a maximum amount for spending. Republicans say that bills can total any amount, as long as the total at the end of the day does not exceed the cap.

"The American people are saying to us: 'You're spending too much, you're running up too many debts, and we expect you to do something about it,'" Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters, adding, "We're pleased to announce today that we're going to recommend a smaller pie, if you will, a smaller discretionary spending budget to our friends in the majority, and hope they will join us."

The cuts amount to about a 2 percent trim from the $1.13 trillion Obama requested for agency budgets that Congress fields annually. Senate Budget Committee Democrats have proposed a $4 billion cut, according to The Associated Press.

Although small as a percentage of overall spending, the cuts represent the Republicans' attempt to respond to rising voter anger about spending and deficits. And it comes from an unlikely source: the Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Committee, many of whom GOP conservatives view with distrust as willing accomplices in spending taxpayer dollars and being prone to larding spending bills with pork barrel projects.

The step comes as the powerful Appropriations Committee is getting ready to approve the first of 12 annual spending bills for the budget year beginning in October. The bills are overdue, and it's appearing increasingly unlikely that many — if any — of them will become law on time, AP reported Tuesday.

The GOP-proposed cuts are drawn from a bipartisan proposal by Sens. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., that has attracted as many as 59 votes in the Senate this year. Democrats supported the cap when voting on the budget last year. They called for cuts of $41 billion for fiscal 2012 and $33.1 billion in 2013.

"I think that's a terrific idea it's the right thing to do to place a cap on growth," McCaskill told reporters shortly after Republicans announced their plan, according to The Hill. " I think if we try to do massive cutting right now we could be dangerously close to a much more serious recession. But capping growth is exactly what we should be doing."

Obama has proposed a freeze on most domestic agency budgets, though he exempts homeland security and veterans programs. But he's calling for an $18 billion, 3 percent increase for the Pentagon.

Democrats said the GOP move would cut the increase for defense by more than half and force cuts below current spending for some departments.

The GOP plan, Inouye said, "could result in cutting research funds for traumatic brain injury, worsening the shortage of air traffic controllers, cutting after-school centers and veterans employment programs, to name just a few."

"Since this Democratic Congress has not produced a budget for next year, the first job of the Appropriations Committee is to decide how much to spend," Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, told The Hill.

"The Sessions-McCaskill freeze is an important first step to rein in federal spending. The next step should be getting entitlement spending under control.”