The Hill News

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Friday that the White House's opening offer to cut an additional $6 billion in spending is "unserious."

Speaking on the Senate floor, the GOP leader said that Republicans would only be satisfied with much deeper spending cuts as the result of a negotiated proposal to fund the government through the end of this fiscal year.

{mosads}"The Democrats' whole approach is to see what they can get away with, rather than to actually do something about the debt and jobs crisis Americans want us to address," he said. "The White House proposal yesterday is equally unserious."

The back-and-forth between the White House and McConnell is likely the first of many as Democrats and Republicans try to hammer out a long-term spending plan before the government is due to shut down on March 18.

After Congress passed a stopgap measure to avert an impending shut down this week, President Obama tasked Vi! ce President Biden and White House chief of staff William Daley to preside over negotiations between leaders from both parties in both chambers.

At a press briefing yesterday, National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling said the White House is willing to cut $6 billion in addition to the $4 billion slashed in the short-term spending measure passed this week. The House passed a bill last month that would cut $61 billion from last year's spending levels, but the Senate has not voted on it.

"We are also prepared to put out specifics that will move another over $6 billion closer -- so that we will have met them halfway -- essentially split the difference between the President’s request and [the House Republicans' spending plan]," he said. "And we’ve made clear that we are willing to cut spending further if we can find common ground on cuts that we can all agree would help reduce the deficit without harming the economy in the short term or harm! ing our long-term competitiveness."

Senate Majority Lead! er Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Friday in reaction to the February jobs report that both sides need to come together on a long-term budget plan that fosters job creation, beyond the funding measures for this year.

"To keep our economy moving in the right direction, Republicans should work with us to quickly pass a long-term budget that reduces the deficit while protecting jobs, and gives businesses certainty," he said. "Then we need to get back to the important work of passing common-sense legislation that gets Americans back to work."