GOP Agrees to $100 Billion in Spending Cuts
Politico reports:
House Republicans emerged from an emergency meeting about the budget Thursday night sounding unified around a newfangled stop-gap spending measure that would achieve cuts of $100 billion.
Freshmen, once again, were the driving force that sent the GOP leadership to head back to the drawing board for deeper slashes to spending just a month into their majority.
The newly elected lawmakers wanted what GOP leadership assured: $100 billion in cuts, now. Not prorated over the remainder of the fiscal year. House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Thursday night in the basement of the Capitol that the cuts Republicans are proposing would equal $170 billion over 12 months, instead of the seven months covered by the CR.
“The freshmen, who obviously are just in their first month of serving, want to make sure that this is a Congress that can earn the respect of the people that sent them here,” said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.). “And first thing’s first and that is to earn the trust. And that means to deliver on your promises and that’s what we do by this bill.”
In short, the plan for $100 billion in savings includes $84 billion in domestic discretionary savings and $16 billion in defense cuts, which GOP leaders say would not have an impact on the troops. This could still cause anger from outside Republican groups, in addition to the conservative Republican Study Committee. RSC Chairman Jim Jordan, from Speaker John Boehner’s home state of Ohio, has insisted that cuts don’t touch defense spending.
Politically, though, the GOP still faces challenges. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) walked into the meeting Thursday evening toting a report from the Congressional Research Service that detailed money that would be spent on the Democrats' new health care law. He is holding firm that House needs to stop funding the law.
