“Far Short” and “Flat”

Timid Proposal for Spending Cuts Shows Pelosi and Democrats Are Failing to Lead on Deficit Reduction

Following a Thursday afternoon summit called to help Democrats formulate a budget plan, the White House announced its timid “opening bid”—just $6 billion in cuts over the remainder of the fiscal year, at a time when Republicans are calling for $61 billion in reductions:

“With only two weeks to cut a deal, the White House proposed more than $6 billion in spending cuts Thursday as part of its opening bid in negotiations with congressional Republicans over how to keep the government operating through Sept. 30 and avoid a shutdown.” (Andrew Taylor and Jim Kuhnhenn, “White House Agrees to $6B More in Budget Cuts,” Associated Press, 3/3/2011)

Democrats have portrayed the proposal as meeting Republicans “halfway,” only to find a skeptical response in news reports, which have noted that it falls “far short” of the $61 billion in cuts sought by Republicans:

THE WASHINGTON POST’s GLEN KESSLER: “This has become a constant refrain by Democrats — that they have already gone some distance to accommodate the Republicans’ efforts to cut federal spending. We already awarded Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) two Pinocchios for this claim, but the talking point keeps popping up again and again.

“We take no position on whether it makes sense to make these cuts at this time. But Democrats are being disingenuous by suggesting they have already worked hard to reduce spending or to reach out to Republicans…

“When Democrats say they are meeting Republicans halfway, they are talking about ‘cuts’ from Obama’s never-enacted 2011 budget. By the White House’s math, they have proposed $41 billion in cuts from the 2011 budget, plus $4 billion in the latest stopgap measure, plus $6.5 billion in unspecified cuts announced Thursday, for a total of $51 billion. But there was no heavy lifting involved, and certainly little discrete examination of which programs to preserve and which ones to cut. It’s lot like saying you are running a 100-yard dash, but starting on the 50-yard line.” (Glen Kessler, “Fact Checker – Democrats Keep Misleading on Claimed Budget ‘Cuts,’ The Washington Post, 3/4/2011)

REUTERS: “Although Democrats are pitching the $44.8 billion as a spending cut, it is essentially keeping spending flat.” (Richard Cowan and Thomas Ferraro, “Republicans and Biden Meet Amid Budget Pressure,” Reuters, 3/4/2011)

THE NEW YORK TIMES: “White House and Congressional Democrats on Thursday offered to trim an additional $6.5 billion from current spending, a figure far short of the Republican goal of cutting agency budgets by $61 billion.” (Carl Hulse and Jackie Calmes, “Democrats Open Talks by Offering $6.5 Billion More in Cuts,” The New York Times, 3/3/2011)

This embarrassingly unserious budget proposal follows an extensive blame game between Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi as Democrats have sought to avoid taking leadership in offering meaningful spending cuts.

Just hours before the Thursday meeting, the White House blamed Senate Democrats for failing to offer a concrete proposal:

NBC’s CHUCK TODD: “There is some disappointment with some folks on this side of Pennsylvania Avenue that the Senate Democrats haven’t been more of a — haven’t been more of a force in these conversations and that, really, the decision to get the White House involved was more to almost drag the Senate Democrats to the table more immediately and start working more directly with Boehner and McConnell on this.” (Remarks from Chuck Todd, MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, 3/3/2011)

This follows earlier reports where Reid and other Senate Democrats blamed Obama for his “low-profile” and “for not being more engaged” in the spending debate:

“Democratic senators are frustrated with the low-profile President Barack Obama has kept during the rancorous spending debate dominating Capitol Hill, urging him Tuesday to take an assertive role or risk strengthening the Republicans’ hand in the next round of negotiations.

“At a closed-door session on the budget, nine Democratic senators spent parts of the 30-minute meeting whacking the White House for not being more engaged, according to people who were present.

“The open irritation with the White House comes just as Reid announced support for the Republican-led bill which passed in the House Tuesday and funds the government for another two weeks, while slashing $4 billion.” (Manu Raju, “Democrats: Obama Must Lead on Budget,”Politico, 3/1/2011)
“Senate Democrats, who have yet to produce a spending bill this year, said they were working on some cuts and would submit their ideas to the White House, which would then produce an offer they would give to House Republicans.

“ ‘We need somebody from the White House directing this,’ Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, told reporters.” (Stephen Dinan, “With Government Shutdown Averted, Parties Debate Next Move,” The Washington Times, 3/2/2011)

Pelosi, however, was quite open about having no plan at all, other than agreeing to “meet Republicans halfway”—by offering no cuts whatsoever:

“ ‘Of course,’ Pelosi told reporters when asked whether she believed Democrats would be able to compromise with Republicans on a longer-term plan that cuts spending to below current levels. ‘The fact is that Democrats stand ready to meet the Republicans halfway on this,’ she said. ‘That would be fair.’

“Complicating matters is the fact that Pelosi’s ‘halfway’ point appears to refer to the measure currently funding the government, which stands at $41 billion below President Obama’s fiscal year 2011 request. That budget was never enacted.” (Felicia Somnez, “House Democrats Mum on Spending Cuts; Republicans Say More Stopgaps Possible,” The Washington Post’s 2chambers Blog, 3/3/2011)

“When pressed further for a concrete number, Pelosi responded, ‘I’m not going to say that number, because I’m not approximating or conceiving or stipulating to any number.’” (Luke Russert, “Pelosi Uncommitted on Cuts,” NBC’s First Read, 3/3/2011)

Given this utter lack of leadership from Washington Democrats, is it any wonder that a recent WSJ/NBC poll showed 63 percent of Americans think Democrats will “not go far enough” to cut spending?:

“Q21 Which concerns you more about the current budget debate – that [INSERT ITEM] will (ROTATE) .. go too far or not go far enough … in cutting programs and reducing federal spending to deal with the budget deficit? (RANDOMIZE)

“THIS TABLE HAS BEEN RANKED BY HIGHEST ‘NOT GO FAR ENOUGH’ PERCENTAGE

(“WSJ/NBC News Poll Results, March 2, 2011,” The Wall Street Journal, 3/2/2011)