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Senate Candidates Have Own Ideas About Cutting Federal Budget
When you ask our Senate candidates where to cut the federal budget, the answer you get is how to cut.

U.S. Representative Mark Kirk, the Republican candidate, named a few items, an unneeded second engine on an Air Force plane, a sugar price support program that he calls wasteful, but mostly the answer is how to cut: He wants the president to have line item veto power, he wants a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget, and he wants another Grace Commission, reminiscent of the panel appointed by President Reagan in 1982, to find ways to save money, only this time, Congress would be required to vote on the commission's recommendations.

Democratic candidate Alexi Giannoulias, the state treasurer, struggles with the idea of cuts, instead talking about the need for economic growth, an end to tax cuts for the wealthy, and budgeting that requires every dollar spent to be offset with either cuts or revenue. That so called pay as you go requirement is already in effect.

In a debate Tuesday sponsored by the League of Women Voters, Giannoulias did not identify any program he would cut, though he said he supports the work of the Deficit Commission and said members of Congress will have to make some hard choices when that report is issued.

He and Kirk agree that there is room for cuts in the $700 billion Pentagon budget.

(Illinois Radio Network)
10 20 10 by Newsroom
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