Kasich urges GOP to focus on cutting government

House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio, Tuesday chastised his Republican colleagues for losing the "will and discipline to cut spending," and urged them to get back on track to reduce the size and scope of the federal government.

Appearing at a news conference hosted by Citizens Against Government Waste, Kasich lauded the group's "Prime Cuts" report recommending $1.2 trillion in budget reductions over five years-although he said he did not necessarily agree with some targets.

For example, Kasich-a candidate for the 2000 GOP presidential nomination-said President Clinton's AmeriCorps program should be reformed rather than eliminated. However, he said he knew of no federal program that was not fraught with "waste, abuse and duplication," and he renewed the 1994 GOP call to eliminate the Commerce and Energy departments. Of the $1.2 trillion in cuts outlined in the report, Kasich said there is "surely $100 billion we can all agree ought to go."

Pressed by reporters on what programs he would cut, Kasich said reductions and reforms are needed throughout every federal agency. He cited the Commerce Department's Advanced Technology Program that provides research and development grants to private corporations. The program is the epitome of "corporate welfare" and a "big, fat giveaway," Kasich said. The effort to identify cuts is "not a matter of where, it's a matter of will," he added.

Asked how his budget cutting message fit with that of House Speaker Denny Hastert, R-Ill., Kasich said Hastert had exhibited "Good Shepherd leadership" in the GOP Conference this morning in which he urged Republicans to stay within the spending caps of the 1997 balanced budget agreement.

But the GOP mantra to balance the budget may have been misguided, said Kasich, suggesting the message should be to shrink the size of government. He likened the Republican budget cutting effort to mountain climbing, saying once the federal budget was in balance, the GOP reached a summit that turned out to be a false one. "We have to climb beyond that false summit. We've been breathing long enough. It's time to climb again," he said.

The Citizens Against Government Waste report targeted spending cuts in every major department and agency. Its recommendations included limiting federal pay raises, reducing law enforcement overtime pay by $100 million over five years, deferring and reducing federal retirees' cost-of-living hikes, and cutting matching funds in the Thrift Savings Plan.

"Even with modest alterations in these generous federal retirement benefits, federal employees would still enjoy retirement benefits comparable to or better than most private-sector plans," the report said.