Update: GOP Sen. Lugar says he'll support House Republican spending cuts
Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), who faces a Tea Party-backed challenge in his 2012 primary, has withdrawn his stated opposition to House-passed spending cuts.
Lugar said Tuesday afternoon that he made a mistake when he told reporters earlier in the day that he would oppose H.R. 1, the House GOP plan to cut an additional $57 billion from the 2011 budget.
“I’m going to vote with the Republicans on the issue when H.R. 1 comes up,” Lugar said. “If it’s strictly an affirmative vote, I will be for H.R. 1 because all the Republicans will be voting for H.R. 1.”
Lugar said he does not like the “formulation” of the spending cuts passed by the House and would like Congress to go even further to cut the deficit.
Republican Sen. Lugar to oppose House GOP's $61B spending cuts
Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the most senior member of the Senate Republican conference, said Tuesday he will oppose the House-passed proposal to make drastic cuts to the federal budget.
He is the first Senate Republican to publicly state his opposition to a plan that Democrats have blasted as “reckless.”
Lugar, who is facing a Tea Party-backed challenge in the 2012 Indiana Republican primary, is taking a political risk. But he and other centrist Republicans have concerns about steep spending cuts that will eliminate funding for some federal programs in mid-year.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has pledged to schedule an up-or-down vote on the House-passed plan to put centrists on the record about whether they support it or not.
“The plan the Tea Party pushed through the House is an irresponsible plan,” Reid said Tuesday. “It’s a reckless plan. It’s dangerous for the health of our economy and certainly the citizens of our great country.”
Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) has criticized cuts to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program that benefits many constituents in his home state, where the temperature plummets in the wintertime.
The House bill would eliminate funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Planned Parenthood. It would also cut substantially from the federal nutrition program for women, children and infants.
Maybe the quickest flip flop in the record of flip flops. It's hard to believe he would say he didn't support the House cuts, because, as he said later, he wanted more cuts.
ReplyDeleteAin't buying it. Somebody got to him.