House approves dramatic cuts in federal spending in 235-189 vote

House approves dramatic cuts in federal spending in 235-189 vote

By Paul Kane

Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, February 19, 2011; 5:48 AM

In a rare early morning weekend vote, the House approved an aggressive plan Saturday to eliminate dozens of federal programs and offices while slashing agency budgets by as much as 40 percent, drawing out more than $60 billion in deficit savings.

Setting up a showdown early next month with President Obama and Senate Democrats, House Republicans pushed the legislation through after a marathon debate capped off by an all-night session Friday that spilled into Saturday morning. During the bleary-eyed final roll call at 4:35 a.m., 235 Republicans were joined by no Democrats in support of dramatic spending reductions that they said were needed to address a soaring annual deficit of $1.6 trillion; 189 Democrats -- as well as three Republicans -- opposed it, accusing Republicans of writing the bill with a "double meat ax."

The three Republicans voting against the measure were Reps. Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Walter Jones (N.C.) and John Campbell (Calif.).

With Democrats pushing to keep spending at 2010 levels for the remainder of this year, the two sides begin a grueling negotiation process more than $61 billion apart.

That gulf grew further Friday when Republicans approved a series of measures that would provide narrow savings but impose sharp policy prescriptions, including the abolition of any federal funding going to Planned Parenthood and the restriction of any funds going toward the implementation of Obama's health-care law.

The threat of a government shutdown looms if the sides cannot agree on funding levels by then, and they are already jockeying over how to draft a very short-term spending bill to keep the government open in March while the broader talks continue for the rest of fiscal year 2011, which ends Sept. 30. This debate is the first of several showdowns between the resurgent House Republicans and the Democratically-controlled Senate, including a pending dispute later this spring over Obama's wish to raise the federal debt limit above the current ceiling of $14.3 trillion as Republicans demand budgetary reforms that would restrain government spending.

"It's going to be fascinating here over the next few weeks and months as we work our way through this. But these are going to be the most important two, three, four months that we have seen in this town in decades," Boehner said. "It's all one fight."

Democrats accused Boehner of caving in to the demands from his conservative flank, which opposed an initial spending-cut package that was roughly half the size of the final draft. "They're now driven by an arbitrary number picked out of the air because it sounded good," House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said of campaign pledge, which is $100 billion lower than Obama's proposed 2011 budget that was never enacted. Compared to 2010 levels, the spending cuts represent more than $61 billion in real savings, what would be the largest rescission of federal funds since the conclusion of World War II.

"A lot of them don't know the ramifications in their own communities of what they're doing," Hoyer said in an interview.

If enacted as is, the GOP plan would eliminate numerous programs, including the Corporation for National Service, which runs the Americorps program; it would terminate federal funding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It would cut $600 million from border security and immigration programs. It would eliminate nearly $80 million for the District and slash funding for the cleanup of Chesapeake Bay.