House GOP presses Democrats on spending

Republican leaders of the House Ways and Means, Appropriations, and Budget committees Monday wrote to their Democratic counterparts asking them to cooperate on legislation to be enacted this month that would reduce federal spending in fiscal 2011 to fiscal 2008 levels and freeze federal tax rates for the next two years.

"It is painfully clear that excessive spending by government -- coupled with the looming threat of a tax hike on January 1 that the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation confirms will raise taxes on 50 percent of the small-business income in America -- is crushing private-sector job creation in our country," wrote Ways and Means Committee ranking member Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., Appropriations Committee ranking member Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., and Budget Committee ranking member Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. "It is critical that legislators on both sides of the aisle come together and use what time remains in this Congress to enact legislation that removes these harmful barriers to private-sector job creation."

The letter comes after House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, floated the same proposals last week. Boehner's offering came in response to President Obama's proposal last week to allow businesses to quickly write off 100 percent of their spending on new plants and equipment through 2011; make permanent a tax break for research and development; and provide $50 billion to rebuild roads, railways and airports.

Democrats appropriators oppose Boehner's spending proposal and pointed to a study released Monday by the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities that said the plan would require "immediate cuts of $102 billion -- or 22 percent -- in funding for discretionary programs other than defense, homeland security, and veterans, as compared to their [fiscal 2010] funding levels."

"This would represent the deepest cut in funding for these programs from one year to the next in recent U.S. history," the report added.

Rhetoric on the struggling economy and unemployment has intensified as lawmakers look for winning issues ahead of the election.

"The spending cuts would be enacted now to avert the possibility of Congress using a lame-duck session to pass a bloated spending bill for next year after the November elections, and would include commonsense exceptions for programs affecting our seniors, veterans, and national security," the Republican letter said.

Democrats are expected to finish the 12 appropriations bills after the election in an omnibus package. They are also hoping to pass legislation as soon as this month that would extend expiring tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush for individuals making less than $200,000 and married couples making less than $250,000. Republicans want to extend the tax cuts for all taxpayers, including those in upper-income brackets.