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House Republicans on Thursday continued their steady march toward approving the largest spending cuts in modern history – a swift, huge slash of more than $60 billion from domestic programs and foreign aid that Republicans said would fulfill their promise to shrink government outlays, but Democrats said would harm the fragile economic recovery.

The White House has already threatened to veto the bill, and Senate Democrats have voiced strong objections to the scale of cuts by the House Republicans, putting the parties on a collision course that officials warned could lead to a shutdown of the federal government early next month.

The stop-gap measure now financing the government expires on March 4, and the speaker of the House, John A. Boehner of Ohio, bluntly warned on Thursday that Republicans would not agree to even a temporary extension unless it reduced spending, which is now generally being held at 2010 levels.

“When we say we’re going to cut spending,” Mr. Boehner intoned at a news conference, “read my lips: ‘we’re going to cut spending.’”

While Mr. Boehner accused Democrats of threatening to shut the government down to avoid making cuts, Democrats accused Republicans of risking a shutdown by refusing to compromise. “It is unproductive to resort to threats of a shutdown without any negotiations,” the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said in a statement.

After working through Wednesday night and into the predawn hours on Thursday, lawmakers returned to the House floor and clashed fiercely over proposed amendments to the spending measure. A final vote was not expected until after midnight, but with the new Republican majority resolute in executing big cuts, the outcome was a foregone conclusion. Republicans now control the House 241 to 193 with one vacancy.

Because the rules of debate required that any restorations in funding be offset with corresponding cuts elsewhere, the total reductions were certain to exceed the roughly $60 billion originally included in the spending measure by the House Appropriations Committee. The bill covers spending for the remainder of the current fiscal year, which runs through Sept. 30.

While the final tally remained to be counted, there was no doubt that House Republicans would succeed in approving their bill after the sort of raucous free-wheeling debate that has been a rarity in the House in recent years. Rank-and-file lawmakers put forward hundreds of amendments, and the outcome of some votes went against the wishes of Republican leaders.

Mr. Boehner said the debate underscored his commitment to letting the House work its will. But long before the vote, he was promoting the outcome. “As part of our effort to liberate our economy from the shackles of out-of-control spending,” he said, “the House will soon vote to cut discretionary spending by over $100 billion over the last seven months of this fiscal year.”

He added, “That’s five times larger than any discretionary spending cuts ever considered by the House. We’ve exceeded the commitment that we made in our Pledge to America, and there are more reforms and cuts to come.”

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February 18

Democrats late Friday night proposed to maintain expenditures generally at 2010 levels through March 31 and avert a federal shutdown.

February 18

President Obama will travel to Brazil, Chile and El Salvador to discuss a broad range of issues with both the leaders and citizens of those countries, the White House said on Friday.

February 18

A highly partisan debate on an omnibus spending bill leads to passage of many hot-button amendments.

February 18

Responding to a query Senator Scott Brown, the commission gives a qualified yes to the use of campaign funds to promote books.

February 18

Jeff Bingaman, a five-term Democrat, is the party’s fourth incumbent to relinquish a seat.

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Bowing to the inevitable, Senator Daniel K. Inouye, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced Tuesday that the panel would not allow pet spending projects known as earmarks to be included in this year’s appropriations bills.

Mr. Inouye, the nine-term Hawaii Democrat and an expert at steering money to his island state, conceded he did not have much choice since the Republican majority in the House had instituted its own ban and President Obama had also said he would veto any spending measure that contained earmarks.

“The handwriting is clearly on the wall,” Mr. Inouye said. “The president has stated unequivocally that he will veto any legislation containing earmarks, and the House will not pass any bills that contain them. Given the reality before us, it makes no sense to accept earmark requests that have no chance of being enacted into law.”

The decision clearly pained the chairman and he suggested he would resurrect the issue for another look once lawmakers of both parties became tired of not having the ability to direct spending to popular projects in their districts and states.

“Next year, when the consequences of this decision are fully understood by the members of this body, we will most certainly revisit this issue and explore ways to improve the earmarking process,” Mr. Inouye said.

The decision eliminates one complication from this year’s difficult spending debates, but the Democrat-controlled Senate and Republican-run House have different ideas on where Congress should end up on spending both in terms of the total amount and the priorities.

Congressional earmarks have been the subject of a long struggle between senior lawmakers who favor them and other lawmakers and watchdog groups who argue that they increase federal spending and breed corruption. The impact on the federal deficit is negligible, but winning a total ban on such spending is an important symbolic victory for earmark opponents.

“A one-two punch from Congressional Republicans and the president has brought an end to earmarks — at least temporarily,” said Ryan Alexander, the president of Taxpayers for Common Sense. “No more political muscle trumping project merit. This should usher in a new era for accountability and oversight on federal spending, not just in earmarked accounts, but budget-wide.”

Lawmakers are always searching for ways around such restrictions and will no doubt still try to influence spending decisions outside the formal definition of earmarks.

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BALTIMORE — House Speaker John A. Boehner closed down the Republican retreat here Saturday with a final declaration that the new House majority is serious about reducing federal spending.

“Washington has an illness,” Mr. Boehner said, according to remarks distributed by his office. “The illness is spending. The debt is a symptom of that illness. The American people want it cured.

“President Obama and Congressional Democrats have been on a job-destroying spending spree that has left us with nothing but historic unemployment and the most debt in U.S. history. If they want us to help pay their bills, they are going to have to start cutting up their credit cards.”

The reference to help with paying bills was a nod to the looming vote on increasing the federal debt limit. The Republican leadership used the retreat to prepare lawmakers for the fact that they will be called on to approve an increase in federal borrowing power, a vote many find objectionable. However, Republicans made it clear at the three-day meeting that they intend to demand substantial spending as their price for the debt limit hike.

It was notable that in his remarks, Mr. Boehner referred to “job-destroying spending” rather than the job-killing phraseology that Republicans have typically favored. Some Democrats have suggested that term is inappropriate in the wake of the shootings in Tucson.

Before Republicans boarded their buses to return to Washington, Reince Preibus, the newly elected chairman of the Republican National Committee, mingled with the lawmakers.

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It’s no secret that Michele Bachmann, the two-term Republican Congresswoman from Minnesota, is a prolific fund-raiser and a bullish “mama grizzly” to boot.

She had no trouble beating her Democratic opponent in November – by 12 percent – so why did her campaign spend more than $2.5 million in the final two weeks before the election?

Ms. Bachman has vastly expanded her reach in the last two years – she founded the House Tea Party Caucus last summer and has become a driving force on cable television. Her re-election campaign was the most expensive House race in the country, costing more than $11 million, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday.

In the two weeks before the election, Ms. Bachmann’s campaign spent about $670,000 on direct mail, a very costly but very effective fund-raising strategy for candidates who are well known beyond their districts.

In that same period, Oct. 14 and Nov. 22, she raised more than $2 million, racking up a total of $13.44 million during the entire cycle.

Ms. Bachmann, who has made no secret of her leadership ambitions, is now sitting on nearly $2 million. Her office did not respond to an inquiry from The Times, so we will be left guessing what’s next.

Bachmann’s Spending (values rounded):

This election cycle: $11.39 million

Between Oct. 14 and Nov. 22: $2.68 million

Contributions:

This election cycle: $13.44 million

Between Oct. 14 and Nov. 22: $2.32 million

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Rising concern over the size of the federal deficit was a drum that Republican leaders beat through the midterm election campaign, and that concern clearly helped motivate President Obama’s decision Monday to freeze the pay of all federal civilian employees for the next two years, although the savings from that will be a drop in [...]