Cantor Backs $60Billion in Cuts Pledge
Politico reports:
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) on Sunday appeared to confirm that House Republicans would stretch out their pledge to cut $100 billion in spending over the 2011 and 2012 budgets.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) promised last year to cut $100 billion in spending to achieve what he said would be a return of non-defense discretionary spending to 2008 levels. More recently, House leaders have said that this would amount to $60 billion in cuts during the current, 2011 fiscal year, prompting Democrats to claim that Republicans were breaking the $100 billion promise.
On NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday, Cantor declined repeated attempts by host David Gregory to get him to confirm that Republicans would only cut $60 billion in the current fiscal year, saying only that the cuts would amount to $100 billion "on an annualized basis."
A Cantor aide later explained that Republicans would be keeping their promise by cutting at least $40 billion more in fiscal 2012.
