Kingston Bracing For Shutdown

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) discusses the latest news regarding the possibility of a government shutdown occurring this weekend. Kingston also discusses House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) 2012 budget proposal, which aims to reduce spending by $5.8 trillion over the next ten years. (8:38)

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More notes from the interview:

Kingston told me that he is bracing for a shutdown. “This is nothing, this is fine,” he said in response to my question of whether he is prepared to stay on Capitol Hill this weekend. He added that he’d be fine with working “every single day, all year long to reduce the size of spending.”

He said that $34.5 billion worth of spending cuts for the rest of this year is not enough, but he’d vote for the budget bill as long as a series of so-called policy riders are attached. If the riders are removed, Kingston said, he might vote against the bill. He warned that the 2011 budget needs to be resolved because both parties are gearing up for another fight over raising the debt ceiling, and subsequently, the 2012 budget proposal from Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

Speaking of the Ryan plan, Kingston spoke favorably of it, but said his Republican Study Committee’s plan, which includes $9.1 trillion worth of reductions over the next ten years, goes much further in scope. Kingston noted that the government could face another shutdown in October when the next fiscal year begins, as the Senate and White House will attempt to force House Republicans to give up their efforts to pass the Ryan plan.