John Boehner, who will become the new Speaker of the House of Representatives, has announced that his number one priority in 2011 is to reduce spending. He's hoping to reduce spending by $100 billion from the $3 trillion federal budget.
But GOP leaders say they will focus only on non-security discretionary spending, and won't slash funding for defense, Social Security or Medicare.
That makes their task a lot harder.
Cutting non-security discretionary funds by $100 billion means a 21% annual reduction in the part of the budget that includes funding for education, health and human services and housing and urban development, among other things, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank.
In other words, the sacred cows of domestic Democratic policy.
Asked which programs will be cut to get to the $100 billion target, Boehner did not offer specifics.
"But I will tell you," he told reporters earlier this month. "We are going to cut spending."
