The Hill News

A Republican lawmaker on Monday poured fuel on the fire of Capitol Hill's heated spending debate, calling high spending "economic child abuse."

"We cannot continue this out of control spending. It is basically economic child abuse," said Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) during an interview on Fox News. "It is capping our children's future and trading it to the countries like China that own our debt."

{mosads}The rhetoric surrounding the debate over the federal budget and spending cuts has ramped up as lawmakers work against the clock to avert a government shutdown by Friday. 

In response to Blackburn's claim, Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) said that the GOP was essentially doing the same thing by proposing cuts to education funds.

"I don't think we need to get into a blame game. What we need is progress here," he said on Fox. "When my colleague talks about child abuse, yes, they're slashing programs in the classroom. They're cutting classroom dollars."

Both sides appeared at an impasse again on Monday, after House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said that $33 billion, the latest amount of proposed spending cuts, is "not enough."

Democrats have accused Boehner of being beholden to the conservative wing of his party, which they say is and rooting for shutdown by demanding deeper cuts.