Senate Democrats Meet To Find More Cuts For Long-Term Funding Deal With GOP 24FEB11

SHUT THE GOVERNMENT DOWN! The cuts being proposed by democrats, tea-baggers and the gop are immoral, and if they are intent on breaking the backs of the poor and working class then let everyone experience the pain. This is a wake up call America! These politicians are representing the military-industrial complex and corporate America, NOT the needs of the people. If anything needs to be cut it is the bloated, wasteful, destructive Pentagon budget and the tax loopholes for corporate America allowing them not to pay their fair share. As the Rev martin Luther King Jr said 
"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."
Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967.
WASHINGTON - Democratic leadership and Appropriations Committee staffers are meeting Thursday afternoon to find ways to cut social spending from the remainder of the fiscal year 2011 budget, a Senate Democratic aide told HuffPost. The object of the gathering is to identify cuts that will satisfy House Republicans' demands for drastic spending reductions despite the flagging economy.
Multiple leadership aides, however, said that the cuts will be made to a long-term budget resolution, rather than a short-term spending bill, as Republicans insist. That the two parties are now arguing merely over how quickly to make cuts indicates that their positions may be drawing close enough to avoid a government shutdown - without the GOP giving much up yet.
"It sounds like Senate Democrats are making progress towards our goal of cutting government spending to help the private sector create jobs," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). "Hopefully, that means they will support the short-term CR with spending cuts that we will pass next week, rather than shutting down the government."
Boehner is traveling on a fundraising tour.
House Republicans have proposed a measure that would keep the government funded for two more weeks past the March 4th deadline -- when money runs out--asking for $4 billion in cuts. Democrats have not budged in insisting any stopgap be drawn along the lines of current funding levels.
The compromise offered to the GOP on Thursday would not change that. "This is not about a short-term CR," said a leadership aide. "We are planning to make a serious offer to the House Republicans on a long-term CR that contains deeper cuts than were originally proposed. And if the Republicans will meet us in the middle of this offer we might be able to avert the need for a short-term CR."
Senate Democrats are hoping that by offering the first concession, House GOPers will either respond in kind or take the blame for a shutdown. Yet each Democratic negotiating tactic has led to additional cuts. As the talks drag on, Republicans get closer and closer to their full goal. Meanwhile, the wrangling over a stopgap measure to temporarily avert a shutdown has the capacity to confuse the debate.

Story continues below

"Someone should pressure them and say 'Why are you so focused on the short term CR when it is it long term CR that matters?" said a top Senate Democratic aide.
The long-term goal would be reached by cutting $8.5 billion in earmarked projects. An additional roughly $25 billion could be cut, said Democratic aides, by moving up reductions that Obama had proposed for the next year so that they take effect sooner. During Thursday afternoon's meeting, lawmakers will discuss what specific programs will be set aside for targeting.