Over the weekend, we reported on the happenings at the Heritage Conservative Member Retreat at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley. Many of the members in attendance were freshmen fresh off their 2010 midterm victories. Many others were seasoned conservative members of the Republican Study Committee -- the most conservative caucus in the House of Representatives.
Virtually all of them had one thing in common: a determination to cut spending in a big way. Read more to see media coverage and how conservatives will push for more spending cuts.
The Daily Caller's Jon Ward has a great piece today capturing the dynamic in the House being created by the RSC. According to Ward Republican leadership is supporting 2011 cuts totaling $60 billion. But the RSC, led by Chairman Jim Jordan, is pushing for more:
Jordan, in an interview Monday, rejected the argument that the cuts should be limited to what the leadership refers to as 2008 levels.
"While I guess I understand that reasoning to some degree, I think the American people heard $100 billion, and the deficit is a record high $1.5 trillion," he said. "We think it's critical that you actually get to $100 billion in savings in this fiscal year, so we're going to be pushing for that."
And sources with some knowledge of how many in the freshman class plan to vote said the hard $100 billion figure has broad support among the 84 new lawmakers.
At a retreat this past weekend for conservative lawmakers at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, 20 or so freshman Republican members told Jordan they wanted him to push for the $100 billion in cuts.
"Those freshman are going to hold out. That was their message to Jim Jordan out there," said one Republican operative who attended the meetings.
Indeed, that was the message. Over and over again the sentiment was clear.
The good news is Speaker John Boehner was pretty clear this weekend in his interview on Fox News Sunday. When pressed as to what level of cuts the House would support, Boehner told host Chris Wallace that he was determined to "allow the House to work its will". In effect, this should serve as a green light for conservatives in the House to push for as much as they can possibly get. As such, we are putting forward a plan to help get those cuts and more and we look forward to working with House conservatives to fulfill the 2010 mandate.