Reid wants new ideas on spending cuts from House GOP

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Republicans are acting as though the House proposal to slash $57 billion from 2011 government spending had not been rejected by the Senate last week.

"They are pretending last week’s votes did not happen," Reid said on the Senate floor Monday morning. "They are covering their eyes and ears to the reality that their proposal, the short-sighted bill that the Tea Party and Republicans in the House still support, was not roundly rejected here in the Senate."

The Republicans' proposal, crafted in the House last month, would have cut $57 billion from government spending for the remainder of 2011. The bill was shot down last week, 44 to 56, without a single Democratic vote. A Democratic proposal to cut $6.5 billion was also defeated that same day.

"We are still waiting for them to bring something, anything, to the table," Reid. said "And not only something, but something new." 

Reid also blasted Republicans for their insistence earlier in the month to limit the duration of a stopgap bill that is currently funding the government to two weeks.

"We asked for four [weeks], they gave us two," said Reid. "They asked for March 18, and March 18 waits at the end of this week."

Reid predicted the Senate would receive a second stopgap from the House on Tuesday or Wednesday and said he hoped the Senate could take action by the end of the week. That measure is expected to cut an additional $6 billion over three weeks.