(creative commons)

The Republican Spending Committee wants $2.5 trillion cut from the budget over the next decade, which they proposed primarily through cutting non-defense spending to 2006 levels and firing 15 percent of federal workers.

The Washington Post reported: "Unveiling its spending proposal, the Republican Study Committee also urged House leaders to make good on their campaign promises to immediately slash agency budgets back to 2008 levels. The RSC also wants Congress to cut $80 billion from an upcoming temporary resolution that would keep the government running through September. The government is currently functioning under a temporary resolution that expires in March." 

The proposal works out to about $175 billion from current spending levels and about $90 billion more than what Republicans previously promised.

The group of Republicans also offered a list of programs and subsidies they want to eliminate. The list includes:

• the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
• the International Fund for Ireland
• the National Endowment for the Arts
• the National Endowment for the Humanities
• Amtrak
• the Hope VI public housing program,
• Title X Family Planning programs
• USAID foreign aid programs

In a draft letter to House Speaker John Boehner, the committee wrote: "Despite the added challenge of being four months into the current fiscal year, we still must keep our $100 billion pledge to the American people."

The Huffington Post reported: "Republican leadership has been slowly backing off a campaign pledge to cut $100 billion from the budget this year, given the political difficulty of the task. The proposal from the RSC, led by Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), is a direct challenge to House Speaker John Boehner to follow the lead of the Tea Party. But the cuts to veterans aid and other programs popular across the political spectrum will prove tough to defend. Democrats, meanwhile, will charge the proposal with exacerbating the nation's unemployment crisis and the suffering of the jobless."

A spokesperson for Speaker Boehner said the goal was to cut spending to levels before the federal stimulus and bailout plans. "That's what we pledged, and that's what we'll fight for. But that will be the beginning, not the end, of our efforts to cut spending and create jobs - and we appreciate every Member's input."

However, congressional budget analysts said many of the estimates on how much the cuts could save are overstated. Budget analyts said the RSC, for example, estimates that cutting off unspent funds from the federal stimulus package could save $45 billion. But analysts say that figure is actually closer to $4 billion.

"I applaud the Republican Study Committee for proposing cuts in federal spending, and I look forward to the discussion on reducing spending that our country so desperately needs to have," House Minority Leader Eric Cantor said. "As promised, we will have an open process when it comes to spending bills. I look forward to these cuts and others being brought to the floor for an up-or-down vote during consideration of the CR, and I support that effort."

Read a list of the specific cuts the RSC is planning here.