Blunt: DOD can take cuts

Missouri Senator Republican Roy Blunt says he is willing to accept potential cuts in the Department of Defense budget.

The debt ceiling crisis is now averted, Senator Blunt is focused on cutting spending across the federal government.

He says that the worst thing Congress could have done was increase the debt ceiling without changing behavior.

He now seems willing to accept cuts even in places his party’s platform traditionally supports.

"Everything should be on the table," Blunt said. "The Defense Department needs to justify like everybody else in the federal government does, what they do and why they are gonna do it. I think there’s room for some reductions in defense spending."

Senator Blunt says the cuts should not come lightly and there is not as much room to cut as some Democrats think.

All of this comes on the heels of the passage of legislation that raises the debt ceiling and is expected to shave about two trillion dollars off the debt in the next ten years.

Tim Filla, KRCU

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McCaskill and Blunt look for compromise on debt

Both of Missouri’s Senators view compromise as the only viable solution to the debt ceiling debate.

Republican Senator Roy Blunt says that Republicans will raise the debt limit but Democrats and the President need to accept substantial long term cuts in spending.

Nevertheless he feels that the Republicans will not get the amount of spending cuts they hope for.

"We are not in an environment, not in a moment where one political party is going to get to have the solution that they would most like," Blunt said. "The President is not going to get tax increases, Republicans aren’t going to get spending cuts back to the level of 30 months ago."

Fellow Missouri Senator, Democrat Claire McCaskill, also champions compromise. But she feels that Republicans are not serious about a deal.

"Nobody wants to give up any of the money," McCaskill said. "Everybody wants us to cut spending, my conference room is full everyday of people coming from Missouri saying, ‘don’t cut me’ And that’s were we have got to have some discipline, we’ve got to learn to say no, we’ve go to learn… and if we cant start with the low hanging fruit, which has to be big oil, how serious can take these guys."

Tim Filla, KRCU

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McCaskill says "Gang of Six" plan makes sense

Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill says the bipartisan “Gang of Six” plan to steer the government away from a first-ever default on its financial obligations makes sense because it helps the deficit and lowers corporate and personal tax rates.

The Democratic Senator attended the meeting on Capitol Hill Tuesday where some 50 senators from both parties were briefed on the plan. McCaskill says most of the senators are excited about the compromise that was presented.

"Now the question is: can we adopt some of those provisions that are in the Gang of Six plan quickly enough to deal with the debt crisis," McCaskill said. "Can we integrate that into, whatever we pass as it relates to the debt crisis, in a way that will reassure enough members that we are gonna get to our debt deficit."

The Gang of Six plan promises almost $4 trillion in deficit cuts, including an immediate 10-year, 500-billion dollar down payment that would come as Congress sets caps on the agency budgets it passes each year.

It also requires an additional $500 billion in cost curbs on federal health care programs, cuts to federal employee pensions, curbs in the growth of military heath care and retirement costs.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said the plan is too complicated to advance before the August 2nd deadline.

Julie Bierach, St. Louis Public Radio

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McCaskill criticizes McConnell's "purely political" plan

ST. LOUIS PUBLIC RADIO - As budget talks continue in Washington, Senator Claire McCaskill is accusing GOP leadership of playing politics during negotiations with the president.

Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, is proposing to give President Obama sweeping power to, in effect, unilaterally increase the nation’s debt limit to avoid a first-ever default on U.S. obligations.

McCaskill, a Democrat, says McConnell’s plan is purely political.

“It is so ridiculous. It is so transparently political that all Mitch McConnell is worried about is whether or not the Republicans can win the Senate next year. And I think it’s unfortunate. It’s very unfortunate.”

Under McConnell’s plan, Obama could request increases of up to 2-point-5 trillion dollars in borrowing authority in three installments over the next year, as long as he simultaneously proposed spending cuts of greater size.

Julie Bierach, St. Louis Public Radio

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Blunt on debt ceiling

The Obama Administration wants more room for U.S. debt, but that’s not sitting well with Missouri’s Republican Senator.


Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner asked a Congressional subcommittee on appropriations on Wednesday to raise the debt ceiling, saying it has to be done because “there’s no alternative.”


Missouri GOP Senator Roy Blunt says unless lawmakers include fundamental changes in the way the feds spend money, he won’t vote for a rise in the country’s debt ceiling.


“I don’t believe Congress would do that and things that both change the budget process and impose controls on the federal government like a balanced budget amendment would are the kind of things that need to be not just part of the discussion by the determination to move forward with the debt ceiling,” Blunt says.


Blunt says last year was the first time since the early 1970s that both houses failed to pass a budget or a single appropriations bill.


Kirk Wayman, KXCV

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