Lewis calls for government domestic spending freeze

WASHINGTON • U.S. Rep. Jerry Lewis on Wednesday joined House Republican Leader John Boehner in urging Congress to immediately freeze domestic spending at 2008 levels.

“Multiple bailouts, failed stimulus experiments, unrestrained government spending and record deficits have pushed our nation to the brink of bankruptcy,” Lewis, R-Redlands, said in a statement. “We must rein in spending now to get back on a sustainable and prosperous financial path.”

Boehner pitched his plan to cut spending to 2008 levels, along with a two-year freeze on all tax rates, on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” The Ohio Republican said he was offering a “bipartisan” alternative to the package of business tax incentives and infrastructure spending that President Barack Obama was slated to announce later Wednesday in Cleveland.

Obama has charged that the GOP criticizes him harshly, without offering any policy alternatives. Boehner touted his freeze-and-cut road map to recovery as an option instead of a catchall spending bill that Congress would pass later this fall.

In a written statement, Lewis criticized the Democratic Congress for failing to pass a single appropriations bill or overall budget yet this year. To read more from the statement, see the full story in Thursday's Daily Press. To subscribe to the Daily Press in print or online, call (760) 241-7755, 1-800-553-2006 or click here.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.