Byron York‘s latest Washington Examiner article explores U.S. House Republicans’ efforts to cut federal spending. As York discovers, there’s still some disagreement about how to meet that goal.
Republicans aren’t speaking with one voice these days when it comes to the most important item on their agenda. Everyone in the GOP wants to cut the deficit, but there is increasing tension over how much and how fast.
Monday afternoon, on the eve of the president’s speech, 89 members of the House Republican Study Committee sent a letter to Speaker John Boehner urging him to cut $100 billion from the federal budget in this fiscal year. Back in September, when Republicans released their “Pledge to America,” they promised to save “at least $100 billion in the first year alone.” But nobody agrees on what that means.
Does it mean in this fiscal year, which started last Oct. 1 and ends Sept. 30? Or this calendar year, ending Dec. 31? Since nearly four months of the fiscal year passed before Republicans took charge of the House, the GOP leadership wants the longer, calendar year to make the cuts. Appearing on “Meet the Press” Sunday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor promised spending would be cut “on an annualized basis.”
The Study Committee want to go faster. “Despite the added challenge of being four months into the current fiscal year, we still must keep our $100 billion pledge to the American people,” the letter says. “These $100 billion in cuts to non-defense discretionary spending not only ensure that we keep our word to the American people; they represent a credible down payment on the fiscally responsible measures that will be needed to get the nation’s finances back on track.”
