Wicker pushes for 5 percent cut to Senate budget

The House measure reduces office budgets by 5 percent while implementing a 9 percent cut for the House Appropriations Committee, a panel that will play a major role in finding ways to reduce spending in the Republican-controlled House.

The bill cuts $1 million from all House leadership offices, $8.1 million from committee budgets and a total of $26.1 million for members’ offices, for a grand total of $35.2 million, according to the bill.

Overall, the budgets of House leadership offices have risen by 8 percent since 2008 while the House Appropriations budget has gone up by 5 percent.

As far as overall spending cuts to reduce the deficit, Wicker said all parts of the federal budget should be on the table to reduce the deficit, including Social Security and Medicare.

“We’re going to have to do that on a bipartisan basis,” Wicker said about Social Security and Medicare. 

“We’re going to have to hold hands as Democrats and Republicans, House, Senate and the administration and make these on a bipartisan basis, because we cannot make programs like that that we’re so dependent on a political football,” he said.