Conservatives Flex Muscles on Spending

Tea Party backers applaud House GOP's move to cut $100B from budget.

ByABC News
February 12, 2011, 6:39 PM

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12, 2011 -- As the Conservative Political Action Committee wrapped up its annual conference in Washington, D.C. this weekend, Tea Party Republicans had reason to celebrate after forcing House Republican leaders to make deeper cuts in their budget proposals.

"A hundred billion means a hundred billion," Dean Clancy, legislative counsel for Freedom Works, said. "They knew when the fiscal year started. They knew when they were going to be sworn in, 100 billion means 100 billion, and we insist on it, and we're getting it."

Earlier in the week, House Republicans announced a plan to slash $35 billion from government spending this year.

But more than 80 freshmen Republicans rebuked the leaders' first offer and called for deeper cuts. House GOP leaders listened to the voice emanating from the Tea Party and tripled the proposal.

"We're going to cut more than $100 billion in discretionary spending on this year's account," Speaker John Boehner said Thursday in remarks at the CPAC Conference.

Tea Partiers were enthused by the freshmen's refusal of the initial proposal and the GOP leadership's willingness to heed their call which initially sparked the Tea Party movement -- cut spending.

"This whole movement is about the spending. That's what ignited the whole movement, the out-of-control spending," Tea Party Express chairwoman Amy Kremer said. "We're happy these new representatives and senators have come to Washington and are taking some of the first steps to trim some of the, you know, excess, spending out of the budget."

The Republican proposal would fund the government for the next seven months through the end of the fiscal year, but the proposed cuts are deeper and broader than some anticipated.

"Contrary to the view that they are smaller than people think, they are bigger than people think," said Bob Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The proposed cuts will sweep across multiple agencies from the Environmental Protection Agency to funding for cities and states. Funds for clean drinking water will be slashed in half in addition to making steep cuts in food safety programs.