Top Republicans Struggle to Articulate Spending Cut Ideas

Republicans have long tried to play it both ways fiscally speaking. They are publicly and loudly in favor of tax cuts, and are also publicly and loudly in favor of reducing federal spending.

However, ask them to name exactly which federal programs or spending that they'd like to see cut, and they suddenly clam up.

An appearance by a multitude of Senate Republican leaders on Meet the Press this Sunday confirmed that Republicans' inability to propose specific spending cuts unfortunately continues.

"Democrats are gleefully passing around a video clip of Rep. Pete Sessions' (R-Tex.) appearance on "Meet The Press" this Sunday, and for good reason. Pressed repeatedly by host David Gregory to explain exactly what the GOP would do to cut the deficit -- should it regain congressional power -- the National Republican Congressional Committee chair stammered and offered platitudes:

"We need to live within our means."

"We need to make sure we read the bills."

"We are going to balance the budget, we should live within our means and we should read the bills and work with the American people."

"We need to make sure that as we look at all that we are spending in Washington D.C."

"We have to empower the free enterprise system."

Really, how hard is it to propose cutting something, anything?

I can rattle off at least 10 programs that could be cut or outright eliminated, without thinking too hard about it (Homeland Security, TSA, Departments of Agriculture and Education can all be eliminated, while spending on Social Security, the Department of Defense, Medicare, foreign aid, etc. can all be scaled back, dramatically in some cases).

The issue for Republicans of course is that they perceive that American voters in general are similarly in favor of cutting federal spending, but not at the expense of "their" programs. Hence, the solution of being in favor of cutting spending in general, but without going into specifics.

Given the fiscal state of America, I think now is the right time for the Republican Party to be honest with ordinary Americans, and either state that they are not in favor of cutting any federal spending (and deal with the political fallout that follows) or that they are in favor of cutting spending and spell out exactly what program they are in favor of cutting or eliminating (and deal with the political fallout that follows).

It's time for politicians (both Republicans and Democrats) to grow up, fully appreciate the fiscal predicament we find ourselves in as a country, and fully and clearly state what they intend to do about it.