–House GOP Sets Vote On Plan To Bring Some FY’11 Spend To FY’08 Levels
–House Republicans Set Vote To Send Message To President
–Democrats Call The Vote a GOP ‘Press Release’
–Senate Minority Leader Urges Obama To Offer Plans To Cut Spending

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – House Republicans are planning to send President
Obama a message and a warning Tuesday regarding federal spending, just
hours before he travels to Capitol Hill to deliver his State of the
Union speech.

The House will vote on a resolution that would call on the House
Budget Committee chairman to present a plan that would bring the rest of
2011 fiscal year spending for non-defense discretionary programs down to
FY’08 levels.

The resolution is set to be approved on a party line vote.

Republicans say the resolution is a way to show the president and
the Senate that the House GOP is serious about cutting federal spending.

Democrats say it is a political stunt with virtually no practical
meaning.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the ranking Democrat on the House Budget
Committee, calls it nothing more than a “press release” by Republicans.

The FY’11 stop-gap spending bill that is funding the federal
government expires on March 4. House Republican leaders have said they
would like to cut at least $60 billion in projected FY’11 spending as
part of the effort to complete work on the FY’11 budget.

President Obama delivers his State of the Union speech Tuesday
evening at 9 p.m. EST.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan is giving the Republican
response.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, in remarks Tuesday morning
on the Senate floor, urged Obama to offer plans to cut spending, reduce
deficits, and ease regulation.

McConnell said he fears the president is ready to embrace the “same
failed approach” of managing the economy with the call for new federal
spending under the rubric of “investments.”

In the State of the Union speech, the president is expected to
focus heavily on economic themes, including the need to generate jobs
now and to cut budget deficits in the future.

Obama is also very likely to discuss tax reform, signalling a
desire to work with members of both parties on comprehensive tax reform.

The Congressional Budget Office will release its new ten year
budget and economic report Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. EST.

This CBO report will provide updated economic growth estimates as
well as budget deficit projections for the next decade.

Obama’s fiscal goals will be fleshed out on Feb. 14 when he
releases his fiscal year 2012 budget, which will also have multi-year
deficit and economic projections.

Budget experts are in near total agreement that the key fiscal
events this year will be the release of Obama’s budget in mid-February
and the budget plans introduced in the early spring by Sen. Kent Conrad,
the Democratic chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, and Rep. Paul
Ryan, the Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee.

Ryan has said that he sees little hope for a broad fiscal agreement
between Congress and Obama before the 2012 presidential elections, but
added that progress can be achieved on spending controls as lawmakers
and the White House complete the 2011 fiscal year budget and consider
the FY’12 budget.

** Market News International Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **

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