Budget battle lines drawn
Wapakoneta Daily News – Ohio’s two U.S. senators agree Congress needs to get control of the federal budget and deficit and they even agree most funds should face the accounting knife — they just disagree on how to reach the goal. Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown says House Resolution 1 would result in job loss and would cut off funding to vehicles for economic growth, citing statistics reported by Arizona Republican U.S. Sen. John McCain’s financial adviser.
Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, who voted in support of HR 1, says he agrees with the level of cuts in the resolution, but he wants to maintain the ability to amend the legislation.
“Congress is debating the budget for 2011 and there is one thing we agree on and that is we have to address the budget deficit and we must do it in a way that does not jeopardize job creation and economic recovery,” Brown said Wednesday in a media teleconference. “We need to address the budget deficit medium and long range and we need to set structures in place that will do the kind of deficit reduction, but not to do it so quickly and not in the small window of non-defense discretionary spending.”
Portman, who voted against the Democrats’ budget proposal, said Congress needs to reduce the federal government’s funding for the rest of the year and that “Washington has kicked the can down the road for too long.”
