Re: Are the Republicans Backing off Pledge Budget Cuts?

Calififornia Republicans pressed to honor no-tax pledge
San Francisco (Reuters) - A prominent Washington Activist is calling on Republican lawmakers in California to stick to an anti-tax pledge, a risk to a Special Election for raising revenue that Governor Jerry Brown is widely expected to ask the legislature to support. The pressure came in the form of a letter sent on Thursday by Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, a heavyweight conservative Advocacy Group. In it he told Republicans that "Voting to send Tax Increases to the ballot ...

House budget chairman says deeper cuts ahead
"If people think we're afraid of cutting $100 billion they've got another think coming," House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said Thursday. "That's just a down payment." Ryan's comments come one day after he and other Republicans said they would not reach their target of $100 billion in immediate cuts, prompting conservative complaints that they were not living up to their campaign promises. Republicans had promised before the November Elections to roll back federal spending to 2008 level...

Video: Boehner says GOP will keep its $100 billion pledge
The Right Scoop captures what is likely to be the biggest takeaway from Speaker John Boehner’s first press grilling in his new position.  Over the last 24 hours, the media has jumped onto some walkback language on earlier GOP pledges to reduce spending by $100 billion in the first year.  That pledge came when Republicans assumed that Democrats would finish their FY 2011 Budget, if not on time, then certainly before losing control of the House.  Instead, they handed the mess to Boehner

House budget chairman says deeper cuts ahead
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-led House of Representatives will push for Spending Cuts in the next Fiscal Year that will be deeper than they promised voters in last year's congressional Elections, the lawmaker leading the effort said Thursday. "If people think we're afraid of cutting $100 billion they've got another think coming," House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said Thursday. "That's just a down payment." Ryan's comments come one day after he and other Republicans said they wo...

Calififornia Republicans pressed to honor no-tax pledge
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A prominent Washington Activist is calling on Republican lawmakers in California to stick to an anti-tax pledge, a risk to a Special Election for raising revenue that Governor Jerry Brown is widely expected to ask the legislature to support. The pressure came in the form of a letter sent on Thursday by Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, a heavyweight conservative Advocacy Group. In it he told Republicans that "Voting to send Tax Increases to the ballot w...

SecDef Gates announces surprising cuts in defense budget
From The Hill: “Defense Secretary Robert Gates Thursday told Congress the administration is seeking $78 billion in cuts to the Defense Budget over the next five years on top of $100 billion in efficiencies. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) said after the morning briefing that he was deeply concerned about the surprising depth of the Spending Cuts. McKeon said he had gone into the meeting expecting to oppose the plan to trim $100 billion in waste when Gates a...

Gates Speech on Defense Budget Jan. 6
Today, I am announcing a number of decisions and measures that mark the next major step in this Department’s reform agenda. First, I will provide an update on our efforts - within the Military services, and in the Department as a whole - to generate efficiency savings by reducing overhead costs, improving business practices, or culling excess or troubled programs. Second, I’ll summarize the substantial investments that the Military departments will be able to make in h...

Rep. Paul Ryan: Republicans Are Not Backing Out Of Spending Cuts Pledge
This is something Rep. Paul Ryan confirms to National Review, saying “We are halfway through the Fiscal Year now, a continuing resolution occurred and so the score of that policy is not $100 billion anymore, it’s something lower than that.” By passing a continuing resolution in the Lame Duck session of Congress (as opposed to the $1.1 Trillion, porked-up omnibus spending bill Democrats wanted) Republicans locked in current levels of spending until a new Budget can be passed. Ry...

Ryan hints at debt ceiling strategy
Even as it exposes fault lines in the new Republican Caucus, a looming clash over the Federal Government’s borrowing power could serve as a major bargaining chip for Republicans hoping to force President Barack Obama to green light major Spending Cuts. Some conservative Republicans have urged their GOP colleagues to resist raising the ceiling -- which currently clocks in at $14.3 Trillion -- under any circumstances. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota is collecting signatures on her PAC's w...

Govs use speeches to preach austerity, unity
Words like "unity" and "shared sacrifice" are in. Dire predictions are leavened with a sense of optimism. And residents are called to live up to the legacy of their states' heroes — like Connecticut's Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin; the Astronauts who blasted into space from Florida; and the pioneers who settled California. Confronting high Unemployment and record Deficits, Governors are using their inaugural speeches to pledge fiscal Austerity, Job Creation and a broad effort to ...

Getting Specific On Budget Cuts
With all the talk of Budget Austerity in response to Deficit projects that are crippling over both the short and long terms, hardly anyone can be found who is willing to get specific about exactly what should be cut.  But Defense Secretary Robert Gates is trying to fire the first shot, proposing cuts in the rate of growth in defense spending amounting to $78 billion over the next ten years. As a proportion of what is needed to bring the U.S. government’s fiscal house into order, Gates...

Boehner also talks budget cuts, safety net
Mark Murray writes: Also asked today by NBC's Brian Williams which government program the U.S. government could do without, John Boehner responded that he couldn't name one off the top of his head. "I don't think I have one off the top of my head," he said. "But there is no part of this government that should be sacred. Uh, I believe there's room, to find savings in the Department of Defense. There are a lot of needs at the Department of Defense. And I think Secretary Gates has a reasonable plan...

In a single day, Obama admin. defense cuts nearly top GOPs entire first-year austerity pledge
"The surprise announcement from Gates was a reminder for the Military establishment - which has benefited from a gusher of new money over the past decade - that it will not remain exempt from painful Austerity measures that federal lawmakers say will be necessary to control the soaring National Debt," The Washington Post's Craig Whitlock noted. The $78 billion comes in addition to $100 billion in cuts that Gates directed the Pentagon to find in May. In a Thursday news conference, the defense sec...

House cuts its own budget by 5 percent
(01-06) 10:52 PST WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Republican-controlled House has cut its own Budget by 5 percent as a symbolic down payment on a promise to wrestle the Budget Deficit under control. Lawmakers say the step shows they are leading by example as they look ahead to fulfilling a promise to return most domestic accounts to the levels in effect before President Barack Obama took office. But the accounts they cut by 5 percent to produce $35 million in Budget savings have gone up by more than do...

House cuts its own budget by 5 percent
WASHINGTON—The Republican-controlled House has cut its own Budget by 5 percent as a symbolic down payment on a promise to wrestle the Budget Deficit under control. Lawmakers say the step shows they are leading by example as they look ahead to fulfilling a promise to return most domestic accounts to the levels in effect before President Barack Obama took office. But the accounts they cut by 5 percent to produce $35 million in Budget savings have gone up by more than double that since the 2...

House Cuts Its Own Budget by 5 Percent
Thursday, January 06, 2011 By Andrew Taylor, Associated Press Washington (AP) - The Republican-controlled House has cut its own Budget by 5 percent as a symbolic down payment on a promise to wrestle the Budget Deficit under control. Lawmakers say the step shows they are leading by example as they look ahead to fulfilling a promise to return most domestic accounts to the levels in effect before President Barack Obama took office. But the accounts they cut by 5 percent to produce $35 million ...

House cuts its own budget by 5 percent (AP)
WASHINGTON – The Republican-controlled House has cut its own Budget by 5 percent as a symbolic down payment on a promise to wrestle the Budget Deficit under control. Lawmakers say the step shows they are leading by example as they look ahead to fulfilling a promise to return most domestic accounts to the levels in effect before President Barack Obama took office. But the accounts they cut by 5 percent to produce $35 million in Budget savings have gone up by more than double that since th...

House cuts its own budget by 5 percent
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-controlled House has cut its own Budget by 5 percent as a symbolic down payment on a promise to wrestle the Budget Deficit under control. Lawmakers say the step shows they are leading by example as they look ahead to fulfilling a promise to return most domestic accounts to the levels in effect before President Barack Obama took office. But the accounts they cut by 5 percent to produce $35 million in Budget savings have gone up by more than double that since...

Vacca, City Council Agree to Deeper Budget Cuts to Keep Parking Cheap
Speaker Christine Quinn’s office just announced that the City Council has reached a Budget deal with the Bloomberg administration, restoring some services slated for cuts and targeting others instead. There’s also one case where the council successfully fought to prevent the city from raising revenue to fund more services. A proposal to increase Parking Meter rates by 25 cents per hour in Manhattan above 86th Street and in The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island got negotiated ...

CBO: Health care repeal would increase deficit
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, right, accompanied by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Va., gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 6, 2011. Repealing President Barack Obama's landmark Health Care overhaul would add billions to government red ink and leave millions without coverage, Congress' nonpartisan Budget referees said Thursday ahead of a politically charged vote in the House. House Speaker John Boehner brushed off the Congressional Budget O...

You can not escape death or taxes
There is no question if state taxes could go up, the question is how much will our lawmakers charge us for their years of bad policies. Since 1999 our state has been run on a Deficit Budget and back in 2003 when then State Budget Director John Filan sounded the alarm over the $4.8 billion Deficit saying,  “Illinois is facing its worst fiscal crisis ever,” and added, “this monumental fiscal problem is real and must be dealt with in order to turn our state’s economic ...

House Dems slam GOP for dismissing CBO estimate on healthcare repeal
House Democratic leaders on Thursday blasted Republicans for dismissing the official cost estimate of healthcare Repeal in favor of their own analysis. Ignoring the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) sets "a dangerous precedent," the Democrats warned, adding that it not only runs counter to GOP campaign promises, but could pile hundreds of billions of dollars onto the nation's Debt. "When you don't like the call on the field, it's not part of the rules of the game that you throw the referee off...

Congress unlikely to extend hand to ailing states
WASHINGTON — With a new Congress, states are also preparing for a new reality that includes less help from the Federal Government when it comes to dealing with their Budget woes. The stimulus money passed by a Democratic Congress and championed by President Barack Obama helped states provide essential services at a time when state revenues were plummeting. Most of the money will run out this year. That means the cuts that states have instituted over the past two years could be even greate...

2nd Arizona Patient Dies After State Budget Cuts Deny Transplant
Phoenix — A second person denied transplant coverage by Arizona under a state Budget Cut has died, with this death "most likely" resulting from the coverage reduction, a Hospital spokeswoman said Wednesday. University Medical Center spokeswoman Jo Marie Gellerman said the patient died Dec. 28 at another medical facility after earlier being removed from UMC's list for a liver transplant needed because of hepatitis C. Gellerman cited medical Privacy requirements in declining to release any...

Pentagon anticipates $78B in budget cut
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Robert Gates will cut $78 billion from the Pentagon Budget in the next five years, money that will come from shrinking the Military’s ground force, increasing health care premiums for Troops and other potentially unpopular cost-saving measures. The plan, announced Thursday, identifies a separate $100 billion in savings found by the services, including the cancellation of a $14 billion amphibious Marine vehicle. However, the services will be allowed...