The Hill News

As both parties gird for a battle over spending cuts that could shut the government down, it is interesting to ponder just what will happen to the economy when, yes, some public-sector jobs are lost as a result of the spending cuts now under consideration and, simultaneously, the rest of the stimulus money runs out.
 
House Republicans, who passed a bill last week to cut $61 billion in fiscal 2011, which ends in October, plan more cuts in their 2012 budget, due out in April. They are pushing spending cuts as deficit reduction, and the necessary response to our fiscal crisis brought on by both parties under the Bush and Obama administrations. But the Republicans are also selling cuts as pro-growth, in what they term their "cut-and-grow" agenda. In recent weeks, as the debate over spending cuts unfolded and took to the House floor for a long, substantive, open (amen!) and heated debate, Republicans are mindful that Obama's drumbeat about "winning the future"Â!  and his veto threat could challenge their "growth" message. To show their cut agenda would grow, they have begun an effort, throughout all relevant committees in the House, to review regulations and assess which ones may be hampering economic growth.

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