Are Republicans Serious About Cutting Spending?

"Republicans on the warpath against federal spending will soon be put to the test on three popular but expensive pork-laden bills for farms, highways and water projects."

"The major infrastructure bills are all due for major updates in the 112th Congress, forcing difficult decisions on measures that lawmakers in the past found easy to trumpet back home but could be more difficult to sell given the deficit-busting rhetoric that Republicans just rode to victory."

"Combined, the last iterations of the three giant omnibus proposals cost more than a half-trillion dollars, which would generate painful headlines for fiscal conservatives. But the bills would pay for everything from replacing decaying bridges to keeping farms in business. They are also alluring to lawmakers because they have something for virtually every state and every district."

"The inherent contradiction between spending billions of dollars and cutting the budget already has conservatives equivocating."

“I wouldn’t say there’s a mandate to stop spending for roads or any other general purpose like that,” said Utah Sen.-elect Mike Lee. “There’s a mandate to adopt a balanced-budget amendment and to rein things in.”

from Politico

My two cents: no, Republicans are not serious about cutting spending. All these bills will pass with either minor cuts in the actual numbers or with minor cuts in projected yearly increases, or a combination of both. These minor cuts will not affect the overall budget. This year's budget deficit is about $1.3 trillion. To put that another way, about 40 cents of every dollar that the federal government will spend this year is deficit spending. It's going to take an enormous amount of spending cuts and/or tax increases to balance the budget. A few billion dollars here and a few billion dollars there will not make a dent in the $1.3 trillion budget deficit.