House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., spoke with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America” on January 6th, 2011,about the GOP’s agenda on Capitol Hill. On the Republicans’ planned vote to repeal the health care reform law, Cantor said it was a way to “send a signal that we’re dead serious about getting rid of this spending of money we don’t have.” http://abcn.ws/dQVMCR
On spending, Cantor predicted: “We are going to accomplish more than $100 billion in cuts over the term of this Congress.”
Stephanopoulos: “But not the first year, as you promised?”
Cantor: “George, what we promised was we are going to bring spending down to ’08 levels.”
As they prepare to take power on Wednesday, Republican leaders are scaling back that number by as much as half, aides say, because the current fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, will be nearly half over before spending cuts could become law.
For their part, GOP leaders pushed back on the suggestion that they were breaking a promise on that score.
“There is no retreat from House Republicans’ pledge to cut spending,” Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., chairman of the House Budget Committee said in a statement yesterday. “To be clear, House Republicans will vote to cut their own budgets by 5 percent this week. Next week, we will vote to cut trillions of dollars in government spending by repealing the President’s health care law. In addition to these immediate steps, we will clean up the fiscal wreckage left by House Democrats, setting spending limits for the remainder of FY2011 at pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels for non-security discretionary spending.” http://bit.ly/eYurkP
As Republicans celebrated their new power in Washington yesterday, two prominent Tea Party activists walked the halls of Capitol Hill carrying a message: we’re keeping an eye on you. Jenny Beth Martin and Mark Meckler, the co-founders of the national group, Tea Party Patriots, aren’t taking anything for granted. They were also passing along the sentiment that the vast majority of their members across the country oppose raising the debt ceiling and support spending cuts.
Meckler expressed disgust Wednesday in response to the news that congressional Republicans plan to reduce their goal of $100 billion in budget cuts, saying the GOP needed to cut more, not less. Meckler said that the American people were no longer ignorant about government spending, so if the GOP stops at the $100 billion figure, he predicts they'll "get an earful from the American people."
Should Republicans fail to follow through, Meckler and Martin said the Tea Party Patriots won’t hesitate to bring out the “big guns” -- their term for mobilizing their considerable member base through social media, mass e-mail messages, conference calls, town hall meetings, rallies and other avenues to put pressure on lawmakers.
The tea party leader said Republicans should aim to reduce spending to the levels seen in 2000, not 2008. He suggested that Congress reach this number by putting everything, including defense spending, on the table for cuts. As CBS News pointed out, defense spending would certainly need to be addressed, as the wars in Afghanistan in Iraq, which have cost taxpayers more than $1 trillion since 2001, weren't yet on the budget in 2000.
TEA-PARTY groups are warning the GOP to cut government spending dramatically or face primary challenges, The Hill reports. Judson Phillips of Tea Party Nation posted an open letter to John Boehner on his website (access for Tea Party Nation members only!) demanding "serious and meaningful cuts in the budget." http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/01/defence_cuts
Both the Republicans and The Tea Party maybe surprised and pleased that Defense Secretary,Robert Gates, just anounced Thursday to Congress the administration is seeking $78 billion in cuts to the Defense budget over the next five years on top of $100 billion in efficiencies.
Members of Congress and defense lobbyists contacted by The Hill said they are ready to oppose the cost-cutting proposal that Gates is expected to unveil on Thursday. But several sources said resisting the administration’s plans would be more difficult than in years past, partly becauseTea Party-backed lawmakers are challenging the rule of old, powerful defense committee barons. The move to ban earmarks in Congress also makes the cuts difficult to oppose, since they have traditionally been the best tool for protecting vulnerable procurement projects.
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