Republicans Concerned GOP Leadership Is Exempting Some Departments From Spending Cuts
The Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives made a great show last week of introducing what they call the Spending Reduction Act. The truth is, though, that the Spending Reduction Act isn’t an act at all. It isn’t even a piece of legislation yet. It’s just a piece of paper that hasn’t been submitted as a bill, more of a press release than anything else.
There is some substance in what the draft of the Spending Reduction Act proposes, however, and that substance has deficit hawks concerned. One of the major problems identified in the not-yet-a-bill is that, if it were passed into law, it would actually block spending reduction in many departments of the federal government.
Yesterday, John Duncan, a Republican from Tennessee, made note of this problem, and called upon his party’s leadership to open up military and homeland security waste to budget cuts. Duncan said, “I want to add my voice to the growing chorus that is saying loud and clear that nothing should be left off the table. There is waste in every Federal department and agency, and the waste in the Defense and Homeland Security Departments is huge. No department should be given a free pass and made exempt from cost savings and belt-tightening.”
