WASHINGTON — The House voted Saturday to slash more than $60 billion from the federal budget over the next seven months, showing how powerfully the grass-roots, antispending fervor of the November elections is driving the new Republican majority’s efforts to shrink the size and scope of government.
The vote, in favor of deep reductions in domestic programs, foreign aid and even some military projects, put the two parties on a path to a quick succession of showdowns over the deficit and the nation’s accumulated and growing debt. The debate has been made all the more bitter by long-simmering political feuds over health care reform, energy, social policy and a fundamental divide over the proper role of government.
The vote, 235-189 with the Georgia delegation split along party lines, was a victory for the large, boisterous class of fiscally conservative Republican freshmen that is fiercely determined to change the ways of Washington and that forced party leaders to pursue far bigger cuts than originally planned.
With Congress on a Presidents Day recess this week, lawmakers will return at month’s end with just four days to agree on a temporary extension of the stopgap measure allowing the government to continue operating in lieu of a final budget.
The Democratic-controlled Senate has signaled that it will not consider anything approaching the scale of cuts approved by the House, setting up a standoff that each side has warned could lead to a shutdown of the federal government early next month.
The vote was also the opening salvo in what is likely to be a long, bitter clash of philosophical ideas about fiscal policy as Republicans repudiate the liberal, Keynesian strategies the Obama administration has relied on to navigate through the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
The House approved its spending measure in the predawn darkness Saturday after four days and nights of freewheeling floor debate — a marathon of legislating in which hundreds of amendments were put forward. Republican leaders lost votes on some of those amendments, in what they said was a testament to their commitment to allow a more open legislative process than their recent predecessors.
Immediately after the final vote, House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement, “This week, for the first time in many years, the people’s House was allowed to work its will — and the result was one of the largest spending cuts in American history.” Boehner added, “We will not stop here in our efforts to cut spending, not when we’re broke and Washington’s spending binge is making it harder to create jobs.”
All 186 Democrats present voted against the bill, joined by just three Republicans: Reps. John Campbell of California and Jeff Flake of Arizona, both of whom had advocated for even bigger reductions, and Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina, who often disagrees with his party.
The Republicans’ plan would quickly impose sharp spending reductions in nearly every area of government.
But Republicans will not have long to bask in the glory of their win, as their bill has virtually no chance of becoming law in its current form.
President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats said the cuts would harm the fragile economic recovery, and the White House had threatened to veto the bill even before it was approved.
Senate Democrats said they had already proposed more than $40 billion in reductions for the balance of the fiscal year, which they said reflected a willingness to negotiate with Republicans.
“Democrats believe we should make smart cuts — cuts that target waste and excess, not slash the programs that keep us safe and keep the economy growing,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a statement after the vote.
The stopgap measure now financing the government expires March 4.
And with Congress in recess, party leaders concede that there is not enough time to forge a deal and that a short-term extension will be needed to avert a shutdown of the government.
But with the tone in the House growing more strident over the four days of debate lawmakers and Washington at large have begun to face the possibility that even a temporary accord will be difficult to achieve.
Boehner has said he would not agree to a short-term extension without added cuts. Democrats, meanwhile, have not shown any willingness to give ground, apparently betting that Republicans will be held responsible for a shutdown as they were in 1995 in a standoff with the Clinton administration.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi late Friday night put forward a temporary extension of the stopgap measure that would maintain expenditures as they are now and avert a shutdown through March 31. But Republicans quickly dismissed it.
Democrats have for weeks warned that Republicans were risking a shutdown by showing no flexibility in the spending debate.
“Closing our government would mean our men and women in uniform wouldn’t receive their paychecks and veterans would lose critical benefits,” Pelosi said at a news conference earlier Friday.
“Seniors wouldn’t receive their Social Security checks, and essential functions from food safety inspection to airport security could come to a halt.”
Aides to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell sought to play down the possibility of a stalemate that would shutter the government, but accused Democrats of rooting for that outcome.
McConnell, however, showed no willingness to consider Pelosi’s proposed temporary extension.
“Freezing in place the current unsustainable spending levels is simply unacceptable,” he said in a statement.
About the Author
