Lawmakers, President Call for Spending Reductions
On January 25, 2011, the House of Representatives voted 256-165 to approve H.Res. 38, which directs Congress to cut FY 2011 non-security discretionary spending to no more than fiscal year 2008 levels. While H.Res. 38 does not specify planned spending cuts, the Republican Study Committee has offered a plan for achieving such reductions, including cutting funding to carry out the ACA and eliminating $16.1 billion temporary increase in federal Medicaid matching funds enacted by Congress last year. Likewise, in his State of the Union address, President Obama proposed freezing annual domestic spending for the next five years, which would reduce the deficit by more than $400 billion over the next decade. Additional details on the President’s spending plan will be included in his FY 2012 budget proposal, which is scheduled to be released in February.
