Outside the Beltway

Obama Threatens Veto Of House Budget Package

Doug Mataconis · Wednesday, February 16, 2011 · 2 comments

The White House is already playing hardball with House Republicans over the Continuing Resolution that must be passed before March 4th, and which the House GOP is using as the vehicle for budget cuts they promised to make during the 2010 campaign:

The Obama administration on Tuesday threatened to veto the House GOP’s measure funding the federal government.

In a statement of administration policy, the Office of Management and Budget said cuts included in the Republican continuing resolution would hamstring the U.S. economy and compromise national security.

“If the president is presented with a bill that undermines critical priorities or national security through funding levels or restrictions, contains earmarks or curtails the drivers of long-term economic growth and job creation while continuing to burden future generations with deficits, the president will veto the bill,” the statement said.

The White House said the cuts in the GOP plan “will undermine our ability to out-educate, out-build, and out-innovate the rest of the world.”

The statement said the GOP proposal goes too far and “proposes cuts that would sharply undermine core government functions and investments key to economic growth and job creation, and would reduce funding for the Department of Defense to a level that would leave the department without the resources and flexibility needed to meet vital military requirements.”

The House GOP measure would cut this year’s spending by $61 billion, though conservative Republicans want to make further cuts.

The battle, as they say, has begun.