Republican feud over 'root canal' spending cuts raises US government shutdown risk
By David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A feud over spending cuts between hardline and centrist Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives raises the risk that the federal government will suffer its fourth shutdown in a decade this fall.
Members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus are pushing to cut spending to a fiscal 2022 level of $1.47 trillion, $120 billion less than President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy agreed to in their May debt ceiling compromise. The group on Monday announced its opposition to any stopgap measure to keep the government afloat that fails to meet its demands.
With Republicans also seeking higher spending on defense, veterans benefits and border security, analysts say the hardline target would mean cuts of up to 25% in areas such as agriculture, infrastructure, science, commerce, water and energy and healthcare.
Goldman Sachs analysts in a Monday research note said that a shutdown looks «more likely than not.»
Centrists, who call themselves «governing» Republicans, say their hardline colleagues are ignoring the fact that their priorities are rejected by Democrats who control the Senate and White House, and that spending will wind up near the level agreed by McCarthy and Biden anyway.
The result is a major headache for centrist Republicans from swing districts that Biden won in 2020 and others with constituents in the firing line of hardline spending targets.
«The reductions are so deep,» said Representative Don Bacon, a centrist Republican from Nebraska. «They want to make everything a root canal.»
Hardliners view the 2024 fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1 as a test of Republican resolve to reduce the federal debt and move on to reform social programs including Medicare and
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