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US House Republicans struggle to find spending cuts

Posted on: Wednesday, 19 October 2005, 11:43 CDT

By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans struggled on Wednesday to gain support for another round of domestic spending cuts, leaving uncertain the fate of legislation that was to have been debated on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday.

"We'll bring the first part of our package ... to the floor when we have 218 votes," said Rep. Roy Blunt, the Missouri Republican who has temporarily replaced indicted House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

Blunt was referring a bill that Republican leaders had hoped to pass in the House on Thursday to cut mandatory federal programs, such as Medicare, Medicaid and student loans, by $50 billion over the next five years, instead of the previously planned $35 billion.

House Budget Committee officials said they did not know whether the measure would make it to the floor on Thursday. Across Capitol Hill, senators were struggling to agree on just the $35 billion in savings.

Another proposal, pushed by House conservatives, for a 2 percent across-the-board reduction in government spending, has proven even more problematic. It has been put off for later in the year, Blunt said.

The drive to cut government spending beyond the goals set last spring in a budget blueprint has been sparked by a revolt among Republican conservatives.

Their efforts got a boost when Congress hurriedly approved $62.3 billion in emergency funds for Gulf Coast states damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Those funds would add to an already large U.S. budget deficit.

In coming days, the White House is expected to submit yet another request for hurricane aid. A Senate aide said that while the figure was "still fluid," it was thought to be around $20 billion.

House and Senate Republican leaders were scheduled to discuss hurricane-related funding and new spending cuts to help pay for the aid in a meeting on Wednesday with President George W. Bush.

Congressional Democrats have criticized the entire budget-cutting effort, saying Republicans are trying to cut some of the very programs that are needed to help hurricane victims in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, a leading Democrat, also said that Republicans have another motivation for pushing a new round of spending cuts.

"What they have proposed will not offset Katrina. It will offset their tax cuts," Hoyer said.

The Republican budget blueprint calls for $70 billion in tax cuts over five years, which would add about $35 billion to the U.S. debt unless more spending reductions are passed.

Rep. Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican leading the charge for deeper spending cuts, said he was encouraged by House Speaker Dennis Hastert's attempts to enact such cuts. But he added, "There's a lot of miles between the saying and the doing here on Capitol Hill."

Pence has warned that conservatives might try to block future hurricane relief funds unless there is progress toward paying for the aid with spending cuts.

Source: REUTERS

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