Key Republican calls for aggressive spending cuts, freezes

Congress should cut discretionary spending and freeze federal workers’ pay, the top Senate Republican on budget issues urged.

Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.), the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said that Congress should cut discretionary spending by 2 percent over the next five years, along with a three-year freeze on cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for federal employees.

{mosads}”I believe we should cut by 2 percent for the next five years the appropriations on the discretionary side of the ledger, so that we can reduce our appropriations account,” Gregg said Thursday evening on CNBC.

“We ought to at least put a freeze on COLAs across the board,” he added. “All COLAs at the federal level should be frozen for the next three years, along with a reduction in discretionary spending by 2 percent over the next five years.”

The proposal, in some ways, is even more pronounced than the immediate spending controls proposed earlier this week by House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), who would become Speaker under a GOP-controlled House. Boehner called for a reduction in spending to 2008 levels earlier this week.

Republicans have made budgetary issues and deficits a major part of their election-year message, arguing that Democrats’ stimulus, along with other efforts to boost the economy, have done little to boost growth, while only exacerbating the hole in the deficit.

Gregg said that lawmakers had no choice but to be more aggressive than ever.

“We have to do more. I mean, it’s really not an option any longer,” he said. “If you look at our numbers, they just don’t meet.”