GOP: $46B More in 2012 Cuts

Politico reports:

Picking up where April’s budget agreement left off, House Republicans outlined plans Wednesday to cut another $45.7 billion from domestic spending and foreign aid next year, an 11 percent reduction designed to roll back appropriations to the levels set prior to the Democratic victories in the 2006 elections.

Labor, health and education programs, the heart of President Barack Obama’s domestic agenda, would be hardest hit — an $18.2 billion cut from 2011 levels and more than $41 billion or 23 percent from his 2012 request.

Indeed, the committee appears to have overshot its 2006 mark, and the $139.2 billion allocated to this bill is substantially less than what was provided that year and closer to 2004 appropriations during former President George W. Bush’s first term.

Wednesday’s announcement sets the stage for what promise to be long nights of difficult House floor fights this summer. And much as the Republican leadership is determined to proceed — even without a budget agreement with the Democratic Senate — the whole exercise increases the pressure for some deal soon to avoid a repeat of the impasse that consumed so much this year.

In a bittersweet moment, House Appropriations Committee Republicans hosted a party — just hours after the new allocations were released — in the panel’s old haunts on the second floor of the Capitol.

Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said the event was to thank staff who had labored long nights in the 2011 ordeal. But the irony wasn’t lost on members — with their new marching orders in hand and having been kicked out of the historic offices by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) in January.

“There are some of us they’ll have to pick up later after we jump off the balcony,” joked Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) to POLITICO.

Indeed, among the dozen annual spending bills, only the Pentagon’s would grow—a $17 billion increase that brings the total to $530 billion, just $8.9 billion less than the president’s 2012 request. By comparison, the much smaller State Department and foreign aid budget is cut by $11.2 billion, a 22 percent reduction from the administration’s request.