Senate Dems urge end to GOP budget ‘infighting’

The comments are intended to highlight the internal troubles
facing House Republicans as they hammer out a budget blueprint for the second
half of fiscal year 2011, while also underscoring the different approach each
party has taken to create jobs. 

Democrats say the best way to fight unemployment is through
targeted increases in spending on education, research and infrastructure. They’re
also calling for cuts in payments to oil companies and military contractors —
spending they consider wasteful. Republicans, meanwhile, argue that deficit
spending has impeded job creation in the private sector. They’re hoping to cut
billions of dollars from the EPA, the NIH and other programs long-championed by
Democrats. 

Last week, House GOP leaders proposed $32 billion in federal
spending cuts through the end of September, but the figure drew howls from the
conservative bloc of the caucus, which is pushing for cuts of at least $100
billion, as outlined in the “Pledge to America.” The stand-off forced
Republicans back to the chopping block Thursday in search of more items to
slice.

Democrats have pounced on the division in the GOP
ranks. 

“Right now, different factions of the House Republicans keep
trying to outbid each other on spending cuts,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said
Thursday in a statement. “They are blindly swinging a meat axe to the budget
when they should be using a scalpel.” 

Schumer said some Republicans “won’t be satisfied with
anything less than a shutdown of the government.”