–House Majority Leader: Won’t Be Impressed if Admin Offers $40 Bln Cuts
–Signals GOP to Begin Talks With Hard Line Stance
By John Shaw
WASHINGTON (MNI) – House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Thursday
he is not impressed by reports that Vice President Joe Biden will offer
a plan to cut spending by $40 billion in the current 2011 fiscal year in
an attempt to reach a budget deal with Congress.
“That’s not cuts. That’s the status quo,” Cantor said at a briefing
on another matter.
Cantor’s comments appeared to signal that congressional Republicans
will begin the talks taking a relatively hard line.
Biden is traveling to Capitol Hill Thursday afternoon at 4:00 p.m.
to begin talks with congressional leaders on completing the current
fiscal year budget. He will head up an administration team that will
include White House chief of staff William Daley and budget director
Jack Lew.
The administration representatives will meet with Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker
John Boehner and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Reid has said the talks will focus on completing the FY11 budget
but might be expanded to include the debt ceiling legislation and
longer-term fiscal issues.
Others have said it will be difficult enough to reach an agreement
on the FY11 budget.
Congress approved this week a stop-gap spending bill that funds the
government until March 18.
Boehner and McConnell have made it clear that they are approaching
the meeting with Biden skeptically. Both Republican leaders have said
that Senate Democrats should offer a plan in response to the House GOP
proposal to cut the FY11 budget by about $61 billion below the previous
year’s levels.
Biden played a central role in negotiating the tax and spending
agreement in December that extended the Bush era tax cuts for two years
and included other tax and spending provisions.
** Market News International Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **
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