Dem leader says it’s up to the GOP to avoid a government shutdown

The burden of avoiding a government shutdown falls squarely on the Republican majority, a top House Democrat charged Tuesday.

Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Democrats are prepared to make “reasonable” budget compromises to avoid a government shutdown. If Republicans don’t do the same, he warned, the resulting impasse would be the GOP’s fault.

“We didn’t shut down the government when we were in charge, [and] we don’t expect them to do that either,” Hoyer told reporters in the Capitol. “We expect them to come to the table and reach agreement.

“If the government shuts down,” he added, “it’ll be the Republicans’ responsibility.”

The House this week began debate on a GOP proposal to cut $61 billion in spending through fiscal year 2011, which ends Sept. 30. The current law to fund the federal government expires March 4.

Republicans say the steep cuts are necessary to rein in deficit spending and lend the private sector more control over hiring. 

“We need to liberate our economy from the shackles of out-of-control spending and big government,” House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said when the bill was unveiled.

Presdient Obama on Tuesday threatened to veto the GOP’s spending bill, saying the cuts proposed by Republicans would hamstring the U.S. economy and compromise national security.

“If the president is presented with a bill that undermines critical priorities or national security through funding levels or restrictions, contains earmarks or curtails the drivers of long-term economic growth and job creation while continuing to burden future generations with deficits, the president will veto the bill,” the Office of Management and Budget said in a policy statement.

A failure of the two sides to reach a deal on spending would cause some federal agencies to shut down, as was the case in 1995 following a similar standoff between President Clinton and House GOP leaders.

{mosads}Many Republicans have offered amendments to bring the cuts in their spending bill up to $100 billion, as outlined in the party’s “Pledge to America.”

Most Democrats contend those cuts are too severe amid a fragile economy where unemployment remains at 9 percent. 

“Consider what the Republican legislation we debate today would do to diminish our investments in education, halt innovation, destroy good-paying American jobs and make our neighborhoods less secure,” Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on the House floor Tuesday.

Hoyer noted that Democratic leaders in December were willing to accept an extension of tax cuts for wealthy Americans — a provision highly unpopular within the caucus. Republicans, he said, must be willing to make similar concessions over the budget — even if they prove unpopular with the Tea-Party movement that propelled many freshmen members into office in November. 

“What you saw in December was a president of the United States who’s willing to make reasonable compromises,” Hoyer said. “I think we can do that on the budget bill, but it takes two to reach agreement.”

Ideology is one thing, the Maryland Democrat said, but “in a democracy, at some point in time you have to act.”