Republicans propose cutting Obama budget

WASHINGTON – Republicans in the Senate are backing a plan to shave $20 billion from President Barack Obama’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

The cuts amount to about a 2 percent trim from the $1.13 trillion requested by Obama for agency budgets annually funded by Congress. Senate Budget Committee Democrats have proposed a $4 billion cut.

While small as a percentage of overall spending, the cuts represent an attempt by Republicans to respond to rising voter anger about spending and deficits. And it comes from an unlikely source: the Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Committee, many of whom are viewed with distrust by GOP conservatives as willing accomplices in spending taxpayer dollars and being prone to larding spending bills with pork barrel projects.

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