House Republicans Introduce Historic Spending Cuts

Thanks to the former Democratic majority's failure to pass a budget last year for 2011, Congress has an opportunity to undo some of the fiscal damage President Obama has inflicted on the current budget, while simultaneously charting a fiscally responsible course for 2012.

One major opportunity to enact spending cuts comes this week in the form of a bill to fund the government for the remainder of this year. If the Democrats had fulfilled their legal obligation to enact budget measures for 2011, we would be stuck with their reckless spending levels for the remaining seven months of the fiscal year. However, their negligence provides a chance to inject fiscal sanity into the system right away.

Since the previous budget year ended in September 2010, the government has been operating under a series of temporary funding measures known as continuing resolutions. In one of their the last acts as the majority party, the Democrats approved the latest continuing resolution in December, maintaining spending at the same deficit-busting levels from 2010 without making any attempt to eliminate wasteful spending.

However, that measure expires March 4. And the House of Representatives is under new management -- with clear marching orders from the American people to cut spending. That is exactly what we're doing. Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers introduced a new continuing resolution Friday that cuts $100 billion compared to President Obama's original 2011 budget request. As Chairman Rogers stated, Republican appropriators have gone "line-by-line in every agency budget to find and cut unnecessary spending" and "to make deep but manageable cuts in nearly every area of government, leaving no stone unturned and allowing no agency or program to be held sacred."

Predictably, Democratic leaders are fighting the spending cuts every step of the way. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called the cuts "draconian." But taxpayers would more accurately characterize them as "a good start." The federal government spent $3.5 trillion last year. Does Sen. Reid honestly believe that there is not $100 billion of unnecessary spending anywhere in that mind-boggling budget? In reality, many federal programs have received funding increases over the last several years that outpaced both inflation and the growth of the American family budget.

With a $14 trillion debt and 21 straight months of 9 percent or higher unemployment, we can no longer tolerate such wasteful spending. The next few weeks are crucial to our efforts to begin reversing the disastrous deficits of the past few years. As we begin debating President Obama's newly released budget for 2012, the American people and the Democratic Senate should view this week's $100 billion in cuts as a down payment on the fiscal discipline we need to restore prosperity.