Senate Democrats are looking for ways to cut spending (not a typo) as part of a long-term continuing resolution compromise with House Republicans:
With a political standoff over spending threatening to trigger a federal shutdown next week, Senate Democrats began drafting a plan Thursday to slice billions of dollars from domestic agency budgets over the next seven months, yielding to Republican demands to reduce the size of government this year.
The plan will involve accelerating some of the $33 billion in program terminations and reductions included in President Obama’s proposed budget for next year, a senior Senate Democratic aide said Thursday. Democrats are also looking at cuts that have been adopted by the Republican-controlled House, such as a plan to strip $8.5 billion for pet projects known as earmarks out of a measure aimed at keeping the government running through Sept. 30.
“This would be a compromise,” the aide said, “accepting something that they’ve already asked for.”
The aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plan is not finalized, declined to say how much Senate Democrats plan to cut, a critical question as lawmakers brace for a week-long game of chicken over spending. Unless a compromise emerges between the Republican House and the Democratic Senate, the temporary measure that is financing federal operations will expire March 4 and the government will be forced to shut down.
Republicans welcomed the decision by Senate Democrats to abandon their previous stand against cuts of any kind in the current fiscal year while noting that the two parties remain far apart.
“It sounds like Senate Democrats are making progress towards our goal of cutting government spending to help the private sector create jobs,” said Michael Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). “Hopefully, that means they will support the [bill] with spending cuts that we will pass next week, rather than shutting down the government.”
More here.
This is a marked change of tone from Democratic leadership. Reid had only recently announced a proposal to keep the government funded at current levels, and had denounced the GOP plan as “draconian.” Republican aides say they are still drafting a two-week CR that would cut spending by $4 billion over that time period. It is “likely” to be released sometime on Friday. Expect to see those cuts targeting the same areas that President Obama went after in his 2012 budget in an attempt to win over support from wavering Democrats. Republicans seem confident that they have the upper hand in this ongoing standoff. “Democrats are facing the reality that their members don’t just want a freeze on spending that would lock in the status quo,” a GOP aide tells NRO. “I think they’ve totally miscalculated.”