House budget leader told to go slow on cuts

The already creeping budget process slowed even more Thursday, as House Republican leaders asked Budget Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio, to hold meetings with his GOP colleagues to make sure they are fully aware of his plans.

"This is going to take several weeks," Kasich said Thursday, following a meeting with House GOP leaders. Kasich "went in seeking advice and he got it," one House Republican familiar with the meeting said Thursday. "The advice was to make sure everyone knew what he was doing."

Another GOP source said the leadership wants Kasich to take his budget outline to the House Republican Conference, and to the various factions and constituencies within the conference, to first get their suggestions on some of Kasich's more politically problematic proposals before marking up a resolution. As outlined by a variety of sources, the Kasich budget plan would cut spending by more than $100 billion, eliminate two federal departments and have an as-yet-to-be-determined tax cut.

Several Republicans, ranging from moderates to House Appropriations Chairman Bob Livingston, R-La., have said this week that the spending cut target may be too large to be feasible. Nonetheless, GOP sources emphasized that Kasich was not told by Republican leaders to go back to the drawing board, but instead was asked to meet with various groups of Republicans and to speak at a House Republican Conference next Tuesday.

For his part, House Speaker Gingrich said Republican leaders made a commitment to work on the budget "as a team."

Gingrich, invoking his leadership model of "listen, learn, help, lead," later told CongressDaily: "John's in the big idea phase now. Next is the listen, listen, listen phase," when Kasich will take his ideas to conference.

Gingrich added that it would be "another 10 days" after that before he expects the Budget Committee to go to markup.

Thursday's meeting originally was billed as an opportunity for Kasich to outline his spending blueprint.

However, Kasich said he simply talked about the philosophy behind the plan. He said no one told him the spending cuts he is contemplating are too large.

"I've not had anyone say that to me," he said. "We have a mark, but we're going to work this through."

Kasich said the process he is employing to sell his plan is similar to efforts he has made in past years. "This is no different than any other year," he said.

Budget writers also hope to have new revenue projections before the markup takes place, and those projections may be available as early as today.

Meanwhile, House appropriators are concerned that the budget process has slowed more, meaning it will be even longer before they can mark up their FY99 spending bills.

Asked about further delays, a senior House Appropriations Committee aide said, "It makes Bosnia very attractive this time of year."

The aide said that members must realize that the budget and spending cycle will "take time at the other end."

And despite previous comments, the aide said he does not want to push House Appropriations subcommittees to consider their FY99 spending bills before the budget resolution is finished.

"I'm not prepared to go out and mark up based on numbers that have no meaning," the aide said.

Livingston acknowledged that the delay, at some point, will result in his panel being "squeezed." He added, "It keeps us in limbo."

Lisa Caruso contributed to this article.