WASHINGTON, April 3 (UPI) -- U.S. Republicans are looking ahead decades in the ongoing budget battle in Congress and will propose cutting $4 trillion over 10 years, two GOP lawmakers say.
U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said on "Fox News Sunday" Democratic President Barack Obama's proposed budget for 2012 "locks in very high spending levels" by not addressing entitlement programs. Obama has called for a five-year freeze on non-defense discretionary spending to save $400 billion.
"He does nothing to address the drivers of our debt," Ryan said. "He's punting on the budget and not doing a thing to prevent a debt crisis, which every single economist tells us is coming sooner rather than later in this country."
When asked how much he wants to trim the budget in the coming decade, Ryan said Republicans are looking at more than $4 trillion in cuts in the coming decade.
"We're fine-tuning our numbers with the Congressional Budget Office literally today, over the weekend," he said. "But we're going to be cutting a lot more than that.
"... We will be exceeding the goals that were put out in the president's debt commission."
Ryan said that would be accomplished by "cutting spending, reforming entitlements and growing our economy."
Freshman Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told "Fox News Sunday" the Obama administration wasn't responding to the spiraling national debt and Republicans are adamant about incorporating tax reform, cuts to discretionary spending, a balanced budget amendment and entitlement reform.
Rubio said the political wrangling that could shut down government late Friday was based on short-term patches, such as extending the country's debt limit.
"If all we do is go in there in three, four weeks or in a couple of months and extend the debt limit again and do nothing else, the world's going to look at us and say America and its political leadership is not serious about dealing with this incredible issue and the fact that their government continues to spend money it doesn't have," he said.
The Republicans are expected to introduce their own budget plan Tuesday, which Rubio said would be the foundation for long-term fiscal responsibility.
"Ultimately, how we spend money over the next six months is important. But how we spend money over the next 60 years is even more important," he said. "That is a fundamental debate and we've got to get to it.
"What we do on the rest of this year's budget will be a strong indicator of how willing and how serious we are about dealing with our debt problem."
