On the recordMarch 9, 2011
In a few hours, the Senate will hold an up-or-down vote on H.R. 1, the House Republicans' scorched earth spending proposal that counts among its casualties such critical priorities as border security, cancer research, and food safety inspectors. The House GOP proposal is a Trojan horse, and we will not be fooled by it. It speaks in the name of deficit reduction, but the dirty little secret about the Republican spending plan is that once the dust is settled, it would only decrease the deficit by $5 billion in fiscal year 2011. When we look at the CBO score of the continuing resolution we are operating under and compare that to the House spending bill, the difference by CBO in budget outlays only amounts to $5 billion in fiscal year 2011. We are talking about a difference of $1.36 trillion in budget outlays under the current CR versus $1.355 trillion in budget outlays under the Republican proposal. In other words, all of the cuts the Republicans are currently proposing will shave a grand total of .3 percent from the deficit. Some might say it is a start, but in relation to the damage these cuts will do, it is a meaningless start.
