Boehner says House will press for largest budget cuts in U.S. history

Speaker John Boehner on Thursday promised the largest budget cuts in congressional history as Tea Party freshmen pressured their leaders to accept deeper reductions in spending. 

"We are working with our members and our committee chairmen to make sure that this cut is as big as possible to send a signal that we're serious about cutting spending here in Washington," Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters at his weekly press briefing. 

"We're going to have a long year," he said. "You're going to see more spending cuts come out of this Congress than in any Congress in the history of this country."

"Everything's on the table," he said later. "We're broke."

Boehner spoke as the Appropriations Committee delayed by a day the release of a measure making $32 billion in cuts to spending for the rest of the fiscal year. It did so after an outcry among Republicans, including Tea Party freshmen, for deeper cuts. 

"This resolution will be marked not for what it continues, but for what it ends, and that's Washington's spending binge," Boehner promised Thursday. 

Boehner did not outline specific budget recommendations, but insisted the spending measure, known as a continuing resolution (CR), would move to a floor vote next week. "It's our intention to do the CR next week." 

When asked whether Republicans are still committed to cutting back to pre-stimulus budget levels, he replied, "Absolutely, and we're going to."

Boehner said details of the CR would be seen soon, and didn't directly answer questions about cuts to military spending and ethanol subsidies. He said some of these items are not among the cuts to discretionary programs that Republicans are tackling first. Boehner said cuts to a wider slate of programs would be coming later in the year.

Boehner also criticized Democratic efforts to increase spending, and said this path is not what voters said they wanted last November.

"We can do nothing, leave the spending process on auto pilot … or we could go ahead and liberate our economy from big government runaway spending and endless regulation that comes with it," he said. "That's what the American people want."