Budget Games: 'I Don't Want To Pinpoint' Any Spending Cuts

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday he would not "pinpoint" any cuts that Democrats would be willing to make in federal spending, offering only broad figures on an overall reduction.

At Hoyer’s weekly Capitol Hill press briefing on Tuesday, CNSNews.com noted the Democrats’ criticism of the GOP’s proposed cuts and asked Hoyer, “Where specifically would Democrats cut spending? If these cuts that the Republicans are proposing are unacceptable, where specifically are Democrats willing to cut spending?”

Hoyer said, “In point of fact, when Vice President Biden came down – in fact Democrats had been working within the appropriations framework to respond exactly to that question.

When asked again for specifics on what Democrats were willing to cut, Hoyer criticized the Republicans for limiting cuts to non-defense discretionary spending, saying “everything” needed to be on the table.

The second-ranking House Democrat did not say, however, which parts of the rest of the federal budget – defense and entitlement spending – Democrats would consider cutting.

“We have in fact made some accommodations on cutting spending but I don’t want to pinpoint those until – if the deal is possible – that that deal is then struck,” said Hoyer.

“From my standpoint, obviously as I’ve told you, looking at the small sliver of the budget is not how you will get from where we are to where we need to be,” he said.

Thus far, neither House Democrats nor Senate Democrats have said where they would be willing to cut spending.

Both House and Senate Republicans have endorsed the House-passed H.R. 1, which would cut $61 billion over the remaining fiscal year but which died in the Senate despite receiving the vote of every Republican senator.

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