Democrats say ahead of meeting they’ll stand by Obama spending freeze

Senate Democrats on Wednesday said they would stand by
President Obama’s call for a five-year freeze on spending while criticizing
House Republicans for slashing the budget.

Ahead of a meeting this afternoon at the White House between Obama
and Senate Democratic leaders, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said some in his
caucus want to go further, hinting that deeper cuts are still possible.

{mosads}“It wasn’t an easy decision,” Schumer, vice chairman of the
Democratic conference, said of the plan to adopt Obama’s freeze. “Some members
of our caucus want to go farther, but at a minimum we’re going to abide by this
freeze.”

Senate Democrats have yet to show their cards in
negotiations with House Republicans and the White House over a spending measure
to keep the government funded this year. House Republicans expect to vote this
week on a measure cutting current spending by $61 billion, which Obama and
Democrats say would hurt the economy.

“The House Republican spending measures would gut our
ability to create jobs, they would roll back investments, and make America
non-competitive in the future,” Schumer said.

But Schumer faces pressure internally from Democrats facing
tough re-election campaigns in 2012, such as Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who
want to cut spending further than Obama.

A Senate Republican aide ridiculed Senate Democrats for
embracing the five-year freeze, which the aide said would do little to reduce
the $1.6 trillion federal deficit projected for 2011.

“Everyone in the country is criticizing Obama’s budget
because it doesn’t go far enough, and they’re going to embrace the part that
locks in the status quo on spending?” said the aide.

Schumer and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.),
Majority Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), Schumer, and Conference Secretary Patty
Murray (Wash.) are expected to attend this afternoon’s White House meeting with
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

Senate Democrats also unveiled their agenda for 2011 at
Wednesday’s press conference, a month and a half after the start of the new
Congress.

They said they wanted to wait until Obama laid out his
vision for governing in the State of the Union address and that they had an
opportunity to discuss it at a retreat in Charlottesville, Va., last week.

“We deliberately wanted the State of the Union to come first
so that the president could lay out the broad framework, and we’re now filling
in the details,” said Schumer.

On the agenda: Reid plans to finish work on the Federal
Aviation Administration authorization bill, extend authorization of the Patriot
Act and surveillance laws, and then move to a patent reform bill drafted by
Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).

Democrats also plan to focus on a highway bill, expand
access to Internet broadband, build an energy efficient smart-grid, help
the domestic manufacturing sector and crack down on alleged Chinese currency
manipulation.