You have just defined the Catch 22 of reducing Federal Spending: it is not possible.
There are way too many of those to list here.
I frequently listened to Rush, Levin and Hannity in the 2000s with a GOP POTUS and they sure weren't saying spending and debt were our biggest problems back then, our biggest problems to them then were the Islamic states and they NEVER called on Bush to veto spending bills that might cut military funding for that purpose.
Their 'too much debt and spending and lets shutdown' real talk didn't start till Obama took office. To listen to them now you would think that they opposed GWB
Sure it is. They put holds on all sorts of funding. There are any number of ways to block the spending of budgeted money up to and including tying it up in court.
Then there’s simply going on TV/press confrence announcing until X is stopped, nothing moves in the house. Just like Ried does with Repub bills in the senate. 100% in their constitutional power.