Budget

Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) penned a letter to their Senate colleagues Tuesday pitching a constitutional balanced-budget amendment.

"The American people are demanding action from Washington to get our fiscal house in order once and for all," part of the letter read. "They don't want any more empty rhetoric or excuses."

Six Senate Republicans have already signed on as co-sponsors of the legislation — Sens. Saxby Chabliss (Ga.), Jim DeMint (S.C.), Olympia Snowe (Maine), John Ensign (Nev.), Michael Enzi (Wy.) and David Vitter (La.) — with more expected. 

Along with Hatch, Snowe and Ensign are up for reelection in 2012. Hatch and Snowe are rumored Tea Party targets and Ensign could also face a Republican primary if he opts to seek another term.

Hatch and Cornyn are looking to roll out the balanced budget amendment effort the week the Senate returns.

Republicans in the House, meanwhile, are hopeful there is renewed momentum for a balanced-budget amendment introduced by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.). 

One of the measure's co-sponsors in the House is Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), a rumored primary challenger to Hatch in 2012.

The administration's warning of dire economic consequences for failing to increase the debt ceiling has not gained traction.

National Taxpayers Union Vice President Pete Sepp said in a press call Tuesday that he sees momentum for passage of a balanced-budget amendment this year.

He said that the approaching vote in Congress on the debt limit provides a “tremendous opportunity for budget process reforms.”

“There is a developing movement for a constitutional amendment,” he noted.

Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Ill.) proposed undoing House Republicans' first cut to help fund lawmakers' security.

Jackson, in a release, said his staff is working on a proposal to reverse the 5 percent cut in the office budgets for members of Congress, which the House approved last week.

In addition to restoring the cut, Jackson said he would propose a 10 percent increase in office budgets for security, in the wake the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) Saturday at a meeting with constituents in her home district.

"I do not feel that fear should grip us, but since 9/11 we've secured every federal facility with the exception of our district offices," Jackson said. "After the events of last weekend it is clear that our district staffs are vulnerable. Members should have the resources and the latitude to take the appropriate security measures in order to protect themselves and their staffs."

The cut in office budgets was one of the first measures on which the new Republican House had taken action last week. It had first been proposed by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to reflect the atmosphere of austerity that the GOP has sought to project with its new majority.

Jackson, like many other Democrats, opposed the Republican-led cuts.

Cross-posted from Blog Briefing Room. 

The large group of freshman House Republicans is facing tremendous pressure over an impending vote to raise the nation's debt ceiling, according to libertarian Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). 

Paul — who opposes raising the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling — predicted that the majority of new Republicans would be convinced to vote to lift it when it comes up this spring.

"It won't take them very long to be unhappy. That's why the real test is going to be those 80-some new members and how they are going to vote," he said during an interview on Fox Business Network posted Monday. "And I [expect] they're going to be talked into it — the majority will be talked into it — because they are going to get some promise they are going to cut back."

The debt ceiling vote is expected to be one of the first major tests of the relationship between Republican leaders who control the House and a large swath of new members who helped them obtain the majority in the November midterm elections. 

With 84 of the 242-member House GOP conference being freshmen, the bloc could wield considerable influence over the direction of the 112th Congress.

While riding a wave of Tea Party support to victory, several members of the freshman class have said they oppose raising the debt ceiling over concerns about high spending and the national debt.

But leaders in Congress and the Obama White House have said that raising the ceiling is a must, arguing it will signal to foreign creditors that the U.S. can meet its obligations. 

The House has suspended votes this week in the aftermath of the shooting of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D).

If Congress is serious about wanting to cut spending, there is no better place to start than with the Pentagon, according to Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio).

Kucinich called for an end to "waste and unnecessary spending" in the defense budget in an interview on the Fox Business Network.

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) is optimistic the administration and congressional Republicans can work together to bring down spending and revamp the tax code, according to a recent interview.

"If we're going to get anything done, we'll have to work together," he said in an interview on Bloomberg Television's "Political Capital with Al Hunt" airing this weekend.

The Senate minority whip said he believes there is a general agreement that government spending needs to come down and that the overcomplicated tax code is in need of a makeover.

Activist Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform has drafted the plan and plans on sending it to every lawmaker.

As House Republicans seek upwards of $100 billion in spending cuts, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said Friday that her staff has found about $450 billion to slash from the federal budget — about half of all discretionary spending. 

"My staff and I sat down, we've looked at the federal budget, and just our first swipe across the budget, so to speak, we've come up with about $450 billion worth of cuts,” she said on ABC’s "Top Line."

She didn't outline specific cuts but said each federal agency would see its budget trimmed. 

"They aren't painless, they do require sacrifice, but it’s from every level; from Commerce to Agriculture to Defense, you name the area of the budget, we've gone in to look at it," she said. "Because I don't like the idea of just across-the-board cuts, because if there are people getting oxygen masks to stay alive, I don't want to cut that budget."

Discretionary spending makes up about one-third of the entire federal budget, slightly more than $1 trillion.

“But on the other hand, if there is money set aside for trips for bureaucrats to go and have a retreat somewhere, that's something that we can cut. So we're trying to be picking and choosing with priorities.”

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Thursday that he still wants to cut about $60 billion in spending through fiscal year 2011 and potentially $100 billion through 2012. 

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said at a National Press Club event Thursday that Congress will have no choice but to raise the ceiling on the nation’s debt in the spring because the alternative is too dire.

“Just refusing to vote for it, I don’t think that’s really a strategy,” Ryan said. "Obviously you can't default."