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Marxists - Socialists
G.O.P. Forces Nearly $50 Billion in Budget Cuts Through House
By CARL HULSE
WASHINGTON, Friday, Nov. 18 - House Republican leaders were dealt a rare defeat Thursday as Democrats and 22 Republicans teamed up to kill a major health and education spending measure.
The 224-to-209 rejection of the $142.5 billion in spending on an array of social programs was the first time since the early days of the Republican takeover of the House a decade ago that the majority had come out on the losing end of such a vote.
Hours after the loss on the spending front, the leadership early this morning forced through a separate measure making nearly $50 billion in budget cuts over five years after massaging the plan to reduce opposition from Republican moderates. The vote was 217 to 215.
The struggle on the spending measure underlined the divide over spending policy confounding House Republicans as they struggle to provide relief for hurricane victims while placating party members alarmed about growth in federal spending.
It also focused attention once again on the difficulties of a leadership team that has been somewhat off balance since September, when Representative Tom DeLay was forced to step aside as majority leader after he was indicted in Texas.
In rebelling against the spending measure, Democrats and some Republicans said it fell woefully short of fulfilling federal commitments.
They pointed, for example, to $900 million in health care cuts that took a toll on the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and on rural health care. They opposed the elimination of $8 billion to prepare for a potential flu pandemic. And they pointed to a provision that would strip money from a variety of popular education programs and leave Pell Grants to college students frozen, as part of the first reduction in education spending in a decade.
"The Republican bill to fund our nation's investments in health, education and other important programs betrayed our nation's values and its future," Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland said.
The narrow passage of the budget cuts this morning came after a couple of false starts in recent weeks and a bitter debate.
"Today we are simply slowing the future growth of government," said Representative Chris Chocola, Republican of Indiana, as the House opened debate. Mr. Chocola said the reductions, if translated to a typical family budget of $50,000, represented a savings of $50.
President Bush's press office issued a statement from Pusan, South Korea, where the president was meeting with leaders of Southeast Asia, praising the action on the budget cuts.
"I applaud the Republican Members of the House who passed a significant savings package that will restrain spending and keep us on track to cut the deficit in half by 2009," the statement said. "We will continue to fund our priorities in a fiscally responsible way and ensure that taxpayer money is spent wisely or not spent at all. I urge the House and Senate to reach agreement promptly on a spending-reduction package that I can sign into law this year."
Democrats said it was unfair to reduce spending on programs like food stamps and health care for the poor to offset the costs of the hurricanes.
"This is the cruelest lie of all," said Representative Gene Taylor, a Mississippi Democrat who lost his home to Hurricane Katrina, "that the only way you can help people who have lost everything is by hurting somebody else."
In another indication of the turmoil in Congress, a tentative deal to extend the government's antiterrorism powers appeared in some jeopardy Thursday, as Senate Democrats threatened a filibuster in an effort to block the legislation.
In the Senate, Republicans claimed a victory early Friday morning as senators voted 64 to 33 to approve a $60 billion tax-cutting package. Republicans defeated Democratic efforts to impose a temporary tax on the sale of oil priced over $40 a barrel. Under the bill, energy companies would have been taxed 50 percent on profits not reinvested in increasing domestic oil and gas supplies.
Members of both parties said the health and education spending measure fell victim to a unusual confluence of legislative circumstances. Pressured by conservatives to show dedication to spending discipline, negotiators stripped the bill of special local projects sought by members, a decision that cut into support, because House members who were already unhappy with the cuts had no other incentive to back the bill.
"The combination of that was too much for them to swallow," Representative Jerry Lewis, Republican of California, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said.
Some Republicans sat stunned on the House floor after the vote, which threw a wrench into Republican plans to finish the spending measures and leave for the Thanksgiving break. Senior lawmakers were debating whether to reopen negotiations to fashion a bill that could pass, keep the programs operating under a yearlong stop-gap bill or try to add the measure to a must-pass Pentagon spending bill.
The defeat averted a Senate vote on the bill, which even the chief Senate negotiator, Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, opposed. "There is a totally insufficient allocation on that bill, beyond any question," Mr. Specter said.
Over all, the House measure that was defeated called for spending more than $600 billion. But the vast majority of that money flows automatically through Medicare and other mandatory programs, so the battle was over the $142.5 billion for discretionary programs, an amount $164 million less than current levels.
The 22 Republicans opposing the bill represented a cross-section of ideologies and had a variety of reasons for objecting. Representative Bill Thomas, Republican of California, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said he objected because of an unexpected acceleration in the timetable for halting Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement for sexual impotence drugs.
Among Republicans from Connecticut, New Jersey and New York, only two broke ranks to oppose the bill. They were Representatives Nancy L. Johnson and Rob Simmons, both of Connecticut.
House supporters of the bill said that it provided a satisfactory level of federal support for health and education programs and that new fiscal restraint was called for, given the resources needed for the Gulf Coast hurricanes and the war in Iraq.
"Maybe it is not as much as you like," said Representative Ralph Regula, Republican of Ohio, chairman of the subcommittee responsible for the measure. "But there is a lot of good in there."
Democrats said the measure, which would have ended more than 20 programs and prevented the start of eight new ones, would shortchange Americans who need assistance at the very time the House and Senate were advancing new tax cuts that would benefit the more affluent.
"This is the day when the price of Republican tax cuts for the wealthy becomes quite clear," said Representative David R. Obey of Wisconsin, senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee.
By CARL HULSE
WASHINGTON, Friday, Nov. 18 - House Republican leaders were dealt a rare defeat Thursday as Democrats and 22 Republicans teamed up to kill a major health and education spending measure.
The 224-to-209 rejection of the $142.5 billion in spending on an array of social programs was the first time since the early days of the Republican takeover of the House a decade ago that the majority had come out on the losing end of such a vote.
Hours after the loss on the spending front, the leadership early this morning forced through a separate measure making nearly $50 billion in budget cuts over five years after massaging the plan to reduce opposition from Republican moderates. The vote was 217 to 215.
The struggle on the spending measure underlined the divide over spending policy confounding House Republicans as they struggle to provide relief for hurricane victims while placating party members alarmed about growth in federal spending.
It also focused attention once again on the difficulties of a leadership team that has been somewhat off balance since September, when Representative Tom DeLay was forced to step aside as majority leader after he was indicted in Texas.
In rebelling against the spending measure, Democrats and some Republicans said it fell woefully short of fulfilling federal commitments.
They pointed, for example, to $900 million in health care cuts that took a toll on the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and on rural health care. They opposed the elimination of $8 billion to prepare for a potential flu pandemic. And they pointed to a provision that would strip money from a variety of popular education programs and leave Pell Grants to college students frozen, as part of the first reduction in education spending in a decade.
"The Republican bill to fund our nation's investments in health, education and other important programs betrayed our nation's values and its future," Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland said.
The narrow passage of the budget cuts this morning came after a couple of false starts in recent weeks and a bitter debate.
"Today we are simply slowing the future growth of government," said Representative Chris Chocola, Republican of Indiana, as the House opened debate. Mr. Chocola said the reductions, if translated to a typical family budget of $50,000, represented a savings of $50.
President Bush's press office issued a statement from Pusan, South Korea, where the president was meeting with leaders of Southeast Asia, praising the action on the budget cuts.
"I applaud the Republican Members of the House who passed a significant savings package that will restrain spending and keep us on track to cut the deficit in half by 2009," the statement said. "We will continue to fund our priorities in a fiscally responsible way and ensure that taxpayer money is spent wisely or not spent at all. I urge the House and Senate to reach agreement promptly on a spending-reduction package that I can sign into law this year."
Democrats said it was unfair to reduce spending on programs like food stamps and health care for the poor to offset the costs of the hurricanes.
"This is the cruelest lie of all," said Representative Gene Taylor, a Mississippi Democrat who lost his home to Hurricane Katrina, "that the only way you can help people who have lost everything is by hurting somebody else."
In another indication of the turmoil in Congress, a tentative deal to extend the government's antiterrorism powers appeared in some jeopardy Thursday, as Senate Democrats threatened a filibuster in an effort to block the legislation.
In the Senate, Republicans claimed a victory early Friday morning as senators voted 64 to 33 to approve a $60 billion tax-cutting package. Republicans defeated Democratic efforts to impose a temporary tax on the sale of oil priced over $40 a barrel. Under the bill, energy companies would have been taxed 50 percent on profits not reinvested in increasing domestic oil and gas supplies.
Members of both parties said the health and education spending measure fell victim to a unusual confluence of legislative circumstances. Pressured by conservatives to show dedication to spending discipline, negotiators stripped the bill of special local projects sought by members, a decision that cut into support, because House members who were already unhappy with the cuts had no other incentive to back the bill.
"The combination of that was too much for them to swallow," Representative Jerry Lewis, Republican of California, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said.
Some Republicans sat stunned on the House floor after the vote, which threw a wrench into Republican plans to finish the spending measures and leave for the Thanksgiving break. Senior lawmakers were debating whether to reopen negotiations to fashion a bill that could pass, keep the programs operating under a yearlong stop-gap bill or try to add the measure to a must-pass Pentagon spending bill.
The defeat averted a Senate vote on the bill, which even the chief Senate negotiator, Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, opposed. "There is a totally insufficient allocation on that bill, beyond any question," Mr. Specter said.
Over all, the House measure that was defeated called for spending more than $600 billion. But the vast majority of that money flows automatically through Medicare and other mandatory programs, so the battle was over the $142.5 billion for discretionary programs, an amount $164 million less than current levels.
The 22 Republicans opposing the bill represented a cross-section of ideologies and had a variety of reasons for objecting. Representative Bill Thomas, Republican of California, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said he objected because of an unexpected acceleration in the timetable for halting Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement for sexual impotence drugs.
Among Republicans from Connecticut, New Jersey and New York, only two broke ranks to oppose the bill. They were Representatives Nancy L. Johnson and Rob Simmons, both of Connecticut.
House supporters of the bill said that it provided a satisfactory level of federal support for health and education programs and that new fiscal restraint was called for, given the resources needed for the Gulf Coast hurricanes and the war in Iraq.
"Maybe it is not as much as you like," said Representative Ralph Regula, Republican of Ohio, chairman of the subcommittee responsible for the measure. "But there is a lot of good in there."
Democrats said the measure, which would have ended more than 20 programs and prevented the start of eight new ones, would shortchange Americans who need assistance at the very time the House and Senate were advancing new tax cuts that would benefit the more affluent.
"This is the day when the price of Republican tax cuts for the wealthy becomes quite clear," said Representative David R. Obey of Wisconsin, senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee.
