Republicans ready spending battle ahead of president’s budget release

Sun Feb 13, 12:49 pm ET

By Rachel Rose Hartman

Republicans this weekend offered the first advance glimpse of the battle they plan to wage once President Obama reveals his budget to Congress.
"He's going to present a budget tomorrow that will continue to destroy jobs by spending too much, borrowing too much and taxing too much," House Speaker John Boehner said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."
The Ohio Republican noted the president has stated a desire to freeze discretionary spending at current levels. But "locking in the current level of spending is way too much," Boehner argued.
The president on Monday is slated to release a budget that claims to reduce the federal deficit by $1.1 trillion over the next 10 years. But Republicans take issue with most of the administration's present spending priorities, which Democrats say the economy still needs in order to stimulate demand and encourage job growth.
Boehner on Sunday sent a letter to the president signed by 150 economists urging Obama to end spending related to the White House's stimulus program.

"My colleagues and I remain concerned . . .  that your administration is continuing its reliance on 'stimulus' policies grounded in the belief that our nation can borrow and spend its way to prosperity, and that private sector job creation is a function of government spending," Boehner wrote.
Boehner and other Republicans in Congress, such as House Budget Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, argue that repairing the deficit is the best way to revive business-owners' confidence in the U.S. economy.
Boehner said on "Meet the Press" that as a former small-businessman, he sympathizes with the struggles of U.S. employers. "When you have all this [economic] uncertainty, you don't invest," he said.
Republicans on Friday unveiled their resolution to fund the government for the remainder of this fiscal year--a proposal that included $61 billion in spending cuts. Democrats have assailed those cuts as too deep, particularly as they apply to major government agencies such as the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency.
But Republicans deny that the austerity measures will seriously impair the status quo of the federal regulatory state. "These agencies got double and triple digit spending increases," Ryan said on "Fox News Sunday." Ryan pointed noted that both agencies also have significant chunks of unobligated spending in their budgets--i.e., funds that Congress had previously appropriated to them that agency heads have yet to spend.
Republicans are trying to minimize dissension in their caucus in the spending fight. Behind the scenes, conservatives have pushed the GOP leadership to fulfill the GOP pledge to cut $100 billion in spending this year.
Some tea party groups and congressional spending hawks have also called for a government shutdown if Democrats and Republicans fail this year to agree on the debt limit. Republican leaders such as Boehner say that they still haven't ruled out that option--while also stressing they're not seeking to force a dramatic  confrontation with the White House.
"Our goal here is to reduce spending," Boehner said. "Our goal is not to shut down the government."
(Photo of Republican House leaders Kevin McCarthy, left, Eric Cantor, center, and Boehner, right: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)