White House promises veto of GOP spending plan

June 3, 2013 @ 3:41 pm

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House stepped in Monday with a veto threat against a House GOP plan to advance a round of 2014 spending bills that would ease sequester-imposed cuts on the Pentagon while forcing even deeper cuts on non-defense programs.

Those cuts would come in areas like education, energy and water development and foreign aid.

In a statement, the White House budget office said the cuts called for in the GOP plan would force thousands of poor children off of Head Start, harm special education, cut federal law enforcement and dent medical research grants to thousands of scientists. It called on the Democratic Senate and GOP House to reach a broader agreement on the budget before advancing spending bills.

The veto promise comes as the House is set this week to consider the first of 12 spending bills for the budget year beginning Oct. 1. The first measure totals $73 billion and awards a 3.5 percent increase for veterans programs while cutting construction costs at military bases. The House is also slated to debate and pass a $39 billion measure this week boosting the Homeland Security Department's budget by almost $1 billion compared with current levels.

Democrats and the White House don't have a problem with the substance of the first two bills. Rather they oppose the overall level of funding set by Republicans for the day-to-day operations of federal agencies.

The statement promised a veto of every spending bill until Washington reaches a bargain on "an overall budget framework that supports our recovery and enables sufficient investments in education, infrastructure, innovation and national security for our economy to compete in the future."

At issue is the almost $1 trillion portion of the $3.6 trillion federal budget that must be approved by Congress each year. This so-called discretionary spending has been cut sharply with the imposition in March of across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration. The Pentagon is absorbing cuts of 7 percent this year and domestic discretionary programs are bearing a 5 percent cut from last year's levels.

Hopes are fading for a budget bargain that would replace the cuts, which leaves lawmakers stuck with even bigger cuts for the upcoming year. Appropriated funding for the ongoing budget year totals $984 billion; the House measures total $967 billion, an almost 2 percent cut below already austere current spending.

Under a 2011 budget deal, the panel was supposed to receive almost $1.06 trillion for the 12 appropriations bills; the House panel is instead stuck with $967 billion under the across-the-board cuts imposed because Congress and President Barack Obama were unable to follow up the 2011 deal with further deficit cuts. The Democratic figures are $91 billion higher, a 9 percent increase from current levels.

Obama and Senate Democrats support advancing the annual spending bills at the higher levels called for under the hard-fought 2011 bargain, replacing the cuts with a mixture of tax increases and spending cuts elsewhere in the budget. But conservatives controlling the House insist that the spending bills be written at the post-sequestration cap of $967 billion.

The GOP plan opposed by Obama restores cuts to the military while making cuts to domestic programs favored by Democrats even deeper. The deepest cuts _ almost 20 percent _ would come from a huge domestic spending bill that funds aid to local school districts, health research and enforcement of labor laws. Cuts to housing, foreign aid, transportation and community development grants would be severe, though a popular program that provides food aid to pregnant women and their babies is likely to emerge intact.

Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., appears to be embarking on a strategy to advance a handful of the annual spending bills by funding them at levels closer to Obama's budget than the tea party budget that passed the House in March. GOP conservatives have balked at such moves in the past, saying they're a trick aimed at boosting spending, but some Democrats were willing to give Rogers the benefit of the doubt by voting for the veterans and homeland security measures during Appropriations Committee consideration last month.

Neither the House nor the Senate are likely to have much luck in advancing the measures very far unless a broader deal is made. In part, the veto threat appears aimed at pushing Republicans into negotiations. But with the budget deficit coming down by itself and with tea party Republicans increasingly comfortable with the across-the-board cuts, it's not clear the strategy will work.

In fact, some lawmakers are predicting that the most likely outcome is for Congress in September to pass a catchall spending measure leaving the cuts in place and keeping the government running on autopilot slightly below current levels.


(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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Comments (77)


  • Add A Comment

  • Hayduke wrote...
    Fair enough, although he won the popular vote by a comfortable enough margin.
    December 31, 2001 8:38 pm
    But he also won the Electoral College, which is what matters in the end, by more than a 2 to 1 margin.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Pair o'dimes wrote...
    How in the world?
    March 20, 2013 6:15 pm
    I have not been following the posts on MyNorthwest for all that long, but seriously, is a comment made in 2001 relevant to an article in 2013? Are the date and time stamps correct? Why do they string together comments from much older news stories?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • hnuh wrote...
    02-19-2013
    February 19, 2013 1:48 pm
    This is truly pathetic. 85 billion is 8.5% of one trillion. Spending is about 3.6 trillion. Therefore the "draconian" cut of 85 billion represents about 2.36% of all spending. I think this would, in real life, be insignificant. Further, that 85 billion, is it for one year or is it over ten years?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • 509 wrote...
    Well, it is the only way to STOP Obama's wars!!!
    February 20, 2013 4:15 pm
    So be it. Their talking about leaving 40,000 troops in Afganistan AFTER our leaving!!! What?? Illegal war in Libya. We are tired of war. End them...now.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • C"mon Man wrote...
    How about......................
    February 24, 2013 11:51 am
    Not spending more than you take in? Been popular and prudent with small business and working family's for over 200 years. Cut congress pay,end their"free stuff', must be a reason they pay millions to hold that title.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • longwayhome wrote...
    haley barbour
    February 24, 2013 6:13 pm
    Size 46 sportcoat, size 2 hat. What a bunch of losers. republicans need to learn that their place in govt. is not what is used to be, or ever will be.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    That's all you got?
    February 25, 2013 12:56 pm
    Insults? Dam(n) you are a pathetic exucuse for a human being. And at least Haley Barbour can ADD, unlike Barry Husein Owebama. Owebama has created this by spending too much and now he's whining that's he can't spend more?!?!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • SickofSeattleite wrote...
    @HPD 5-0
    February 26, 2013 5:31 am
    that's all longwayhome ever has....
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • FormerMarineSgt wrote...
    @HPD 5-0.... "That's all you got?"
    March 12, 2013 9:49 am
    Seems like you're the pot calling the kettle black here. One comment above longway's is yours - "Everthing you write is full of dung... like your skull."
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • maplefish wrote...
    More STUPIDITY from WRONGWAY!
    February 25, 2013 1:08 pm
    Hers the real problem you DUMBSHIIT: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyLmru6no4U
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • It's me! Ha ha! wrote...
    Parrots your Dear Leader will finally get his desire.
    February 25, 2013 11:12 am
    To drive us over the fiscal cliff. Blame it on the Republicans though? Your Dear Leader and the regime is driving this car!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • murr wrote...
    The public warns (the leader of fiscal cliff's) Management by emergency.
    February 25, 2013 6:41 pm
    Spending more than you bring in, will break you. That might be news to you people that dream to be a victim, and at someone else's beck and call. (and some call him a leader)
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • longwayhome wrote...
    maplecarp and hpd's
    February 25, 2013 7:48 pm
    Heads are up the poop chute. Can't see cause it's too dark? You two are worse than it's me any day, with your republican stupidity. Remember, you lost? Why is that? Explain to the rest of us on this news site why you guys STILL think Obama is on the wrong track. Try to use your own words, don't go to faux news for some obscure clips from your favorite limbaugh quotes, just some common sense reason why you guys think you are right and the Democrats are wrong. I'm not going to hold my breath for any sensible response, probably just some more name calling and vague answers. I'll start it out by calling on hpd to post ONE solution to the problems of the country, without his usual negative input.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • maplefish wrote...
    Again...DUMBSHIIT Wrongway -
    February 25, 2013 9:14 pm
    Read this, learn and PISS OFF: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyLmru6no4U
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    wronway....You are a child....
    February 26, 2013 6:35 am
    .....
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    just some common sense reason why you guys think you are right and the Democrats are wrong.
    February 26, 2013 6:37 am
    I can provide sixteen TRILLION reasons (and growing) why he and you are wrong and each one has a picture of Washington on them. But then you have no commons sense and obviously cannot grasp economics or basic math.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • bigdogina4x4 wrote...
    Longway...seriously her is the list:
    March 4, 2013 11:39 am
    1. We can't spend more than we take in. The money we take in is Taxes, and many Americans are taxed out and finding it hard to buy groceries and such. So, Obama needs to trim spending. 2. Obama is a poor leader. One example is during the Sequester fight, congress gave him an option to be selective in the spending cuts, but he didn;t have the chops for it abnd refused. Why would he not want to be able to be selective? 3. He tries to manipulate the public with fear. Remember all the horrific things that were going to happen when the sequester set in, the lines, hungry children, a defensless nation.... Guess what, after it happened - he says quote "it's not going to be the apocolypse". Why did he try to make it sound like it was. 4. What about Begazi, we're still not sure why that happened.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • longwayhome wrote...
    Waiting..........
    February 25, 2013 8:01 pm
    .......
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • longwayhome wrote...
    When happy hour
    February 25, 2013 8:14 pm
    Is at noon, most republican posters are not available at this late hour.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • maplefish wrote...
    Wrongway
    February 25, 2013 9:22 pm
    Your Messiah Obama is a PATHETIC, INCOMPETENT, LYING HYPOCRITE, (just like you little man) who's incapable of doing anything but non-stop campaigning and running away from the HUGE eF ING Mess he's created. He is a FRAUD and a FAILURE and in 3 more weeks we'll be trying again NOT TO SHUT the Government down. You are just too stupid to understand the real world. Put on some big-boy apnts and pay attention. Here's a little more info on your pathetic leader: www.humanevents.com/.../a-dimes-worth-of-barack-obama-g...Cached
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • maplefish wrote...
    BTW - Dumbshiit WrongWay
    February 25, 2013 9:38 pm
    None of the links I posted were from Fox or any Right leaning Media. They were available all over YouTube. Of course your probably to stupid to even navaigate the links to the proper sites. And as for losing? WRONG! I will live better, my children will live better and their children will live better than you will ever imagine, so who's the LOSER? Not me. HAHAHA...I'm retired at 50 and own 3 beautiful homes. I travel constantly and have put 3 children through college with NO HELP from the Government. I pay more in tax every month then you will ever hope to make in a lifetime. Now, go to the links dumbshiit and learn something. There may be a chance for you to get off pubilc assistance someday if you just use your tiny brain...
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    That's cause we are working extra to pay for all you spending.
    February 26, 2013 6:38 am
    ...
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }