House Republicans emerged from an emergency meeting about the budget Thursday night sounding unified around a newfangled stop-gap spending measure that would achieve cuts of $100 billion.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.):
"The freshmen, who obviously are just in their first month of serving, want to make sure that this is a Congress that can earn the respect of the people that sent them here. And first thing’s first and that is to earn the trust. And that means to deliver on your promises and that’s what we do by this bill."
More from Cantor:
"The level of cuts here have not taken place in Congress since World War II,” Cantor said. “That’s how big these cuts are, OK? So we have now produced a working document, again a bill that will be brought to the floor that will make history again. Since World War II, this place has not seen a cut like this. These are not easy cuts. But we understand our country is on a path to fiscal ruin and if we want to get the economy going, we want to get people back to work, this is one of the first steps we need to take."
The proposal includes cuts of $84 billion in domestic discretionary savings and $16 billion in defense cuts, saying the defense cuts would not affect the troops.
The bill will head to the Senate after it is debated in the House and amendments are offered into it and voted on.
If the Democratically controlled Senate does not pass it, the showdown between the House and the Senate could very well lead to a government shutdown.
