With shutdown averted, budget battle to start for real

WASHINGTON -- Republicans won an early round Wednesday in their fight to shrink the government, pushing $4 billion in spending cuts through Congress in a bill that puts off the possibility of a government shutdown for two weeks.

President Barack Obama dispatched his vice president to initiate talks on a broader, longer-term spending bill and find "common ground" with GOP leaders determined to cut tens of billions of dollars more and undo much of his agenda.

Obama conceded that any deal on a government budget covering the next seven months will feature cuts, not just the long-term freeze he proposed last month.

The Senate cleared the temporary spending measure by an 91-9 vote after the House passed it with a large bipartisan vote Tuesday. Obama signed it Wednesday afternoon.

Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign of Nevada voted for the stopgap budget measure, saying it was necessary to give Democrats and Republicans time to negotiate a final budget for the 2011 fiscal year.

After initially being rejected last week by Reid, the Senate majority leader, the two-week cuts written by House Republicans shot through the Senate with minimal opposition on the right and left.

The upcoming talks, to be led by Vice President Joe Biden, promise to be more difficult.

"This agreement should cut spending and reduce deficits without damaging economic growth or gutting investments in education, research and development that will create jobs and secure our future," Obama said. "It should be free of any party's social or political agenda, and it should be reached without delay."

Republicans called on Democrats to offer a long-term solution of their own in response to a $1.2 trillion GOP spending measure that passed the House last month.

"It's hard to believe when we're spending $1.6 trillion more than we're taking in a single year, that it would take this long to cut a penny in spending, but it's progress nonetheless," Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said. "It's encouraging that the White House and congressional Democrats now agree that the status quo won't work, that the bills we pass must include spending reductions."

Reid described the nearly $61 billion in cuts in the GOP house bill passed last month as "mischievous riders" that would do grave harm to the economy.

"Instead of slashing, slashing recklessly, we should eliminate waste," Reid said.

Ensign, a Republican and member of the Senate Budget Committee, said Wednesday's vote was "an important day for the American people."

"Today is the first day in the 14 years that I have been in office where I have witnessed both sides of the aisle coming together to cut billions of dollars from the government's budget," Ensign said.

He said that even with the $4 billion in cuts, the national debt would grow another $38 billion over the next two weeks.

"We are all capable of raising our thumbs up to cut spending temporarily, but now the real work begins as we start to tackle President Obama's budget," Ensign said.

The $4 billion in immediate savings produced Wednesday comes from some of the easiest spending cuts Congress can make. It hits accounts that Obama has proposed eliminating and reaps some of the savings brought about by Republicans' earlier moves to prohibit lawmakers from "earmarking" pet projects for their districts and states.

Reid said he would have preferred to have longer than two weeks to hash out a final budget agreement, and he put the onus on House Republicans to meet with Senate Democrats and White House officials.

"They now have a responsibility to set aside threats of government shutdown if they don't get everything they're demanding. They need to be prepared to negotiate -- and quickly," Reid said.

The bill that House Republicans muscled through last month could cut spending over the next seven months by more than $60 billion from last year's levels and $100 billion from Obama's request. It would block implementation of Obama's health care law and several environmental rules. White House officials have promised a veto .

Stephens Washington Bureau writer Peter Urban contributed to this report.