Democrats Propose Temporary Budget Extension
By DAVID HERSZENHORNWith a debate over government spending raging on the House floor, Democrats late Friday night proposed a temporary extension of the stopgap measure now financing the government that would maintain expenditures generally at 2010 levels through March 31 and avert a federal shutdown.
The current stopgap measure expires on March 4. House Republicans are nearing approval of a package of steep reductions, but Senate Democrats oppose it and the White House has issued a veto threat.
The House speaker, John A. Boehner of Ohio, has said he will not accept a temporary extension without additional cuts. Party leaders concede that there is not enough time for an overall deal on spending given that Congress is in recess next week.
The temporary extension was proposed by the House Democratic leader, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California. Democrats, however, do not have the votes to approve it without Republican support.
“This legislation will allow Congress to complete work” on appropriations for the 2011 fiscal year “without punishing the American people by denying them vital services,” Ms. Pelosi said in a statement.
“In order to give Congress time to finish the legislation and avoid the calamitous effect of a government shutdown on the American people, I am hopeful Republican leaders will agree to a short-term extension of the freeze as we work to pass a bill the president can sign into law for the remainder of 2011,” she said.
Republicans said Democrats were not willing to cut spending as aggressively as is needed.
“While Republicans in the House of Representatives are making a genuine effort to cut spending and debt, Democrats continue to line up behind the president’s timid proposal for locking in the massive spending levels that Americans rejected just three months ago,” the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, said in a statement. “In other words, Democrat leaders in Congress intend to join the president in resigning themselves to a future of higher unemployment and spiraling debt at a time when Americans are demanding smaller government instead. Americans have been clear: freezing in place the current unsustainable spending levels is simply unacceptable.”
The current stopgap measure expires on March 4. House Republicans are nearing approval of a package of steep reductions, but Senate Democrats oppose it and the White House has issued a veto threat.
The House speaker, John A. Boehner of Ohio, has said he will not accept a temporary extension without additional cuts. Party leaders concede that there is not enough time for an overall deal on spending given that Congress is in recess next week.
The temporary extension was proposed by the House Democratic leader, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California. Democrats, however, do not have the votes to approve it without Republican support.
“This legislation will allow Congress to complete work” on appropriations for the 2011 fiscal year “without punishing the American people by denying them vital services,” Ms. Pelosi said in a statement.
“In order to give Congress time to finish the legislation and avoid the calamitous effect of a government shutdown on the American people, I am hopeful Republican leaders will agree to a short-term extension of the freeze as we work to pass a bill the president can sign into law for the remainder of 2011,” she said.
Republicans said Democrats were not willing to cut spending as aggressively as is needed.
“While Republicans in the House of Representatives are making a genuine effort to cut spending and debt, Democrats continue to line up behind the president’s timid proposal for locking in the massive spending levels that Americans rejected just three months ago,” the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, said in a statement. “In other words, Democrat leaders in Congress intend to join the president in resigning themselves to a future of higher unemployment and spiraling debt at a time when Americans are demanding smaller government instead. Americans have been clear: freezing in place the current unsustainable spending levels is simply unacceptable.”
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