Murdock proposes axing four agencies

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - The so-called Super committee of the House and Senate is now nine days from a deadline to agree on cuts of $1.2 trillion in the federal budget over the next ten years. The six Republicans and six Democrats are struggling to reach agreement on Capitol Hill on a proposal that would prevent automatic cuts in the federal budget.

While they negotiate, Indiana GOP Senate candidate Richard Mourdock is proposing cuts of $7.6 trillion, six times as large.

READ | Murdock's proposed cuts

"That would be an 18.9 percent reduction from the planned spending over that 10 year period," says Mourdock. "It is meaningful, serious cuts, painful perhaps."

Mourdock says he would do away with 4 Cabinet agencies: Housing and Urban Development, Commerce, Education and Energy. His opponent in the GOP primary, Senator Richard Lugar, is in favor of cuts but the scope of the Mourdock proposal led a Lugar campaign spokesman to suggest that it's a political document.

"To go and cut comprehensive agencies without thought about consequence or reasons for being," said David Willkie, "that certainly calls into question what this proposal is."

Mourdock is courting Tea Party support and on CNN this weekend the national GOP Chairman helped point out a Lugar challenge. When asked if the Republican Party would help protect Lugar Reince Priebus said, "We appreciate the service that he (Lugar) has given, but we don't get involved in primaries. And I happen to believe that the Tea Party movement has been good for America, it has been good for our party."

So while the Super committee may delay the tough decisions until after the 2012 election, federal spending will remain an issue in the Indiana Senate race. Meantime, Dick Lugar met with a Tea Party organization in Hamilton County over the weekend. He's clearly gotten the message that fiscally conservative voters will be an important factor in the May primary.