PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A local public interest group is speaking out against budget-cutting proposals in Congress.

Megan DeSmedt (above) of the organization PennPIRG calls the US House-passed spending resolution (see related story) “wrongheaded” and hopes that the Senate will take a different path.

She says the House measure slashes many popular programs while barely touching most items that impact corporate interests.

“Tough choices should only come after easy ones,” she told KYW Newsradio today.  “And it’s hard to imagine how cuts to Pell grants, food safety, and clean water standards came before eliminating wasteful subsidies and closing corporate tax loopholes and handouts for companies like BP, Goldman Sachs, and Exxon Mobil.”

DeSmedt is asking voters to get in touch with US senators Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and ask them to combine spending cuts with revenue enhancements such as tax increases.

Reported by Paul Kurtz, KYW Newsradio 1060.