GOP Mixes Message on Spending Cuts -

Washington Wire - WSJ

Just a day after Republicans launched an initiative to find federal spending cuts to pare the deficit, the GOP is up in arms – about a spending cut.

A $53.2 million cut to New York City’s antiterrorism funds by the Department of Homeland Security has elicited cries of outrage from Republicans, less than 24 hours after House Minority Whip Eric Cantor urged Americans to face “the difficult but unavoidable realities of our fiscal situation.”

Rep. Chris Lee, a Republican from the Buffalo, N.Y., area, expressed his anger on the same day he published an opinion piece in the Buffalo News urging readers to “recognize that Washington’s spending is linked to our economic health.” President Barack Obama visits Buffalo today as part of his Main Street tour on job growth and the economic recovery.

The Republican National Committee blared a headline, “THEY SAID IT!”, quoting a statement by New York Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat, which said, “For the administration to announce these cuts two weeks after the attempted Times Square bombing shows they just don’t get it.”

Lest anyone think the administration is going on a binge of spending restraint, let it be shown that White House spokesman Nick Shapiro emailed out his own statement saying that spending on counterterrorism programs in New York City is actually going up, despite those cuts. It’s just coming from a different pot of money: the stimulus funds.

 

Posted via email from Jim Nichols