Budget

The House Budget panel's second-ranking Republican is pressing his leadership to keeps its promise to cut $100 billion in non-defense discretionary spending for the remainder of this year and reduce spending to fiscal 2008 levels. 

Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) sent a letter signed by 89 of the 176 members of the Republican Study Committee (RSC) to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Monday urging him to stick with the GOP's initial cost-cutting vow that helped the GOP win control of the House last fall. 

"Despite the added challenge of being four months into the current fiscal year, we still must keep our $100 billion pledge to the American people," the letter said. "They represent a credible down payment on the fiscally responsible measures that will be needed to get the nation’s finances back on track."

Thirty-three members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus have sent a letter ahead of Tuesday's State of the Union speech to President Obama urging him not to propose cuts to Social Security. 

Liberals are afraid that Obama will try to tackle entitlement reform this year and agree to proposals that would pare back benefits.

The Jan. 20 letter was released publicly on Monday when MoveOn.org asked supporters to call President Obama and ask him to take cuts to Social Security off the table.

Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker is calling for a 5 percent cut in the Senate budget, following the House's path earlier this month.

Ahead of President Obama's State of the Union address, Wicker plans to introduce a resolution on Tuesday that would cut the Senate's budget, he told Fox News on Monday. 

He has already cut his personal office's budget by 5 percent and is pushing for Senate leadership to follow the lead of the House, which approved a resolution that cuts all House budgets by 5 percent, saving about $35 million. That resolution passed the House on a 410-13 vote on Jan. 6. 

If all Senate offices cut their budgets by 5 percent it would save an additional $20 million, Wicker said. 

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Last year, then-House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said military salaries, not just civilian federal government salaries, should be frozen in order to help reduce the budget deficit. This year, Minority Whip Hoyer appears to be less willing to rush to judgment, even though the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has just released a study that would seem to bolster arguments in favor of a cut in military pay.

CBO last week released an eight-page report that said the median cash compensation for enlisted personnel with no college degree is "at least as high as the 75th percentile of earnings for federal workers with comparable work experience."

"In other words, the typical enlisted person receives more cash compensation than three-quarters of comparable federal civilians," according to the report, which Hoyer requested. It also found that compensation for commissioned officers with college degrees is even higher.

Despite these findings, a spokeswoman indicated Hoyer is not yet ready to push for reduced military pay.

"This is part of Mr. Hoyer's larger effort to assemble information on the state of federal and military pay, and he has not made any judgments at this point," Katie Grant told The Hill.

The Washington Post editorial page on Monday morning called on President Obama to get specific in the State of the Union with a plan to tackle the national debt and said that so far, the editorial board is not persuaded Obama is serious about the problem.

“Time is running out for Mr. Obama to propose those hard choices and, more important, to fight for their adoption and implementation. We do not doubt the sincerity of his concern about the nation's precarious fiscal state. But we remain unpersuaded, and increasingly concerned, about the seriousness of his resolve to do something about it,” the editorial states.

It states that conservatives are wrong to insist on massive cuts right away, since this would endanger the economic recovery, but liberals are wrong to keep entitlements off the table. It calls on Obama to hew a middle path.

“Sensible adjustments now will avoid the need for greater injury later and can be accomplished in a way that protects those in greatest need. Mr. Obama has, so far, been willing to say ... none of this,” the editors write.” On the contrary, the default impulse has been to solve political differences by taking out the checkbook: an extension of tax cuts for the wealthy here, a payroll tax holiday there.”

"We are headed toward a cliff, yet the president hits the accelerator,” Senate Budget Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions said.

Lawmakers expect the House Ways and Means Committee to get back on track and reestablish the panel's power.

House liberals are urging President Obama to meet with them about Social Security policy before next week's State of the Union Address.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus sent a letter to the White House on Friday, requesting a meeting before Tuesday's speech, asking Obama to "send a clear message" that Social Security shouldn't be touched. 

The letter, signed by 33 House members, expresses concern about Republican plans to make changes to the program, possibly trying to privatize Social Security. 

"The truth is that there is no Social Security crisis," the letter says. "The program currently has a $2.6 trillion surplus and, without any action, can pay full benefits until 2037 and at least 75 percent of all benefits thereafter." 

A panel of Social Security experts on Friday were divided in their predictions on how President Obama will handle entitlement reform in next week’s State of the Union address.

Deficit hawks hope that Obama will use the speech to begin a bipartisan drive toward a balanced budget by seizing the initiative from House Republicans on spending.

They have argued Obama should go beyond the non-security discretionary spending cuts the GOP is seeking by embracing cuts to defense spending as well as tax code and entitlement reform.

“There are many people on both sides of the aisle, especially in the Senate who want to see him do that,” said Maya MacGuineas, the president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. She spoke at a Capitol Hill event organized by The Urban Institute.

AARP, the largest lobbying organization on behalf of seniors, is taking a wait-and-see approach on a possible Social Security reform effort this year, the group's top strategist told The Hill on Friday. 

The AARP's approach contrasts with a coalition of Social Security advocates who have launched a million-dollar advertising campaign to oppose potential changes to the entitlement. 

AARP Executive Vice President of Policy and Strategy John Rother said AARP is waiting to see what President Obama proposes, if anything, in Tuesday’s State of the Union address. Deficit hawks are urging the president to present a long-term deficit reduction plan that will include tackling entitlements.

Rother added that his organization would be unhappy if the president endorses the changes proposed by the White House debt commission in December.

“That would be a big problem for us,” Rother said.