Democrats Say House-Proposed Spending Limits "Unworkable"

Brian Beutler | February 3, 2011, 2:00PM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) with Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Charles Schumer (D-NY)

On Thursday, House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) introduced new limits on spending to fund the government through the end of September. The proposal itself falls a bit short of the GOP pledge to slash spending by $100 billion, on a prorated basis, this fiscal year. But already Senate Democrats are warning Republicans that they'd better willing to negotiate toward the center, or they'll risk a government shutdown.

Indeed, top Democrats addressed reporters about the GOP proposal Thursday afternoon. They criticized the GOP's approach, and its leadership, for not taking a government shutdown off the table. They even brought Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) old economic adviser -- and Moody's chief economist -- Mark Zandi to the podium to buttress their case: a government shutdown would harm the economy, spending should not be cut dramatically right now, and the standoff should be resolved quickly.

"The chairman of the [House] Budget Committee today -- today -- sent us something more draconian than we originally anticipated," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said. He called Ryan's plan "unworkable."

"The Republicans control the House, the Democrats control the Senate and the White House -- that's two-thirds of the decision-making parts of the government here," said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY). "So it can't be that 80 new Republicans who come in say "we should dictate everything that happens, otherwise we're gonna shut the government down, otherwise we're going to default. And I think the leadership -- the leadership of the House and Senate Republicans -- has been notably silent. Which I think encourages them to continue saying these things. Even saying these things rattles the debt market some."

In reality, the figures aren't actually as draconian as many Republicans wanted, or thought they would be. According to Ryan, "the spending limits will restore sanity to a broken budget process and return spending for domestic government agencies to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels." He claims they constitute a $74 billion cut -- but that's from the levels President Obama requested, not from the levels the government is operating under right now. Relative to current funding, Ryan's plan represents a slimmer $32 billion cut (about $40 billion if you count non-defense spending only) -- much less than conservatives on the Republican Study Committee want to see.

His numbers are binding, for now, on the House. So the question is whether Republicans are willing to meet the Democrats mid-way on overall spending -- and on particular spending cuts -- or whether they view their top-line, and their spending priorities, as non-negotiable.