"Town Drunk Plans to Go on Wagon"
Which do you think is more likely to dry out?
Posted on 02/14/2004 3:34:19 PM PST by Libloather
‘Everything on table’
GOP plans cuts, reforms, to tackle budgetary woes
By Alexander Bolton and Sam Dealey
House Republicans hope to enact a host of measures aimed at curbing what both centrist and conservative lawmakers decry as runaway federal spending.
Emerging from a rare members-only “mandatory” two-and-a-half-hour conference called yesterday to deal with mounting budget concerns, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) told reporters: “Nothing is sacred in this business. Everything is on the table.”
Although Hastert didn’t say so, several initiatives under consideration would curb the power of the Republican leadership as well as House appropriators and authorizers.
These initiatives are being pushed most vigorously by a group of young conservative firebrands, many of whom have come to Congress since the so-called Republican revolution of 1995. These ardent conservatives want to reinfuse their senior colleagues with the spirit of that revolution, once led largely by former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.).
Their actions are in large part a response to constituent complaints about the spiraling budget deficit, as well as growing anger among the conservative base over federal spending, which has reached record levels. It also reflected election-year concerns and signs that the voters are beginning to regard the Democrats as the party of fiscal responsibility, reversing a traditional GOP edge.
However, a broad cross-section of the House Republican caucus, conservatives and centrists alike, agree that something needs to be done to cut the deficit, estimated at $521 billion for this year.
House leaders hope to present a budget resolution by March 15 that reflects the consensus. They would like to see a final version enacted by both chambers by April 15.
Some of the most severe cost-cutting proposals discussed include a moratorium on congressional earmarks for this year, a one percent cut in non-defense, non-homeland security discretionary spending, a 1 percent cut in the growth of mandatory spending, and some 20 initiatives to reform the budget process. Another proposed initiative would require that transportation earmarks be paid for out of the transportation funding that states automatically receive each year according to a preset formula.
Many of the proposed budget reform initiatives are included in a 12-point statement of budget principles forged by members of the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC) and the moderate Tuesday Group.
Bush’s budget, unveiled last week, also seeks to restrain domestic discretionary spending, permitting growth of a half-percent next year. Such programs, however, only account for 16 percent of the overall budget and do not touch homeland security, Social Security and defense, for which spending will increase.
The conference saw dozens of lawmakers rising to speak about the importance of reducing spending. Attendees say the meeting showed a GOP more united than it has been since 1995 on trimming federal outlays.
“This was not a gripe session like Philadelphia pretty much was,” said another lawmaker, referring to the House Republican retreat last month.
Only a handful of Republicans defended specific programs, but usually in a political context, questioning whether such a cut could be made in an election year.
The unusual alliance of conservative and moderate Republicans, whose relationship since the House takeover in 1995 has been soured by funding differences, underscores the anxiety many House Republicans have over the sharp rise in federal outlays.
“Usually the leadership is in the middle trying to separate the RSC and the Tuesday Group to get to 218 votes,” said a conservative who attended the meeting. “It’s really pretty remarkable. People were actually telling jokes about Mike Castle being an honorary member of the RSC.” Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.) is one of the original founders of the moderate Tuesday Group.
“There are suggestions of putting everything on the table,” said Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.), chairman of the RSC, a bloc of more than 90 conservatives in the House.
Myrick said she would like to look even at trimming unnecessary homeland security and defense spending, reflecting a growing consensus among Republicans that no sacred cows will be spared the scalpel. Since Sept. 11, 2001, most lawmakers have been loath to criticize security and defense spending.
As for proposals to crack down on earmarks, Rep. Jim Ryun (R-Kan.), another conservative, said, “There are a lot of types of things being discussed.”
But a GOP leadership aide cautioned that many proposals — such as a moratorium on earmarks — might not garner the 218 votes needed to become law.
Rep. Bob Beauprez, a conservative Republican from Colorado, said that it would be foolhardy for the House to give up earmarks for a year if the Senate remained unreformed.
The most concrete cost-cutting proposals have emerged in the form of a budget reform package being pushing by House conservatives that would tie the hands of GOP leaders and the president in handling spending bills and big-ticket legislation as they move through Congress.
The package, containing close to a dozen reform initiatives, would also rein in House appropriators who are viewed suspiciously by many conservatives as a third party, independent from Republicans and Democrats.
“Look, the process right now is too wide open and to free ranging,” said Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who is spearheading the effort for the RSC. “This will tie the hands of all [lawmakers] and the leadership. It does tie their hands to some degree, but leadership understands that.”
Ryan and Reps. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and Chris Chocola (R-Ind.) put the package together on behalf of House Republican conservatives.
Ryan said the GOP leadership has been receptive toward the proposals and has promised to give them floor consideration, even though the reforms would make it tougher for leaders to shepherd controversial legislation through the House.
Most important, the initiative would give the budget resolution the force of law. This would significantly constrain the ability of GOP leaders to circumvent the budget, which is viewed by lawmakers more as a roadmap than an ironclad constraint on spending.
However, Rep. Ralph Regula (R-Ohio), chairman of the Labor Health and Human Services Subcommittee of Appropriations, disputed criticisms that the budget process is broken. He said he would be open to some reforms but was wary of giving the budget resolution the force of law because it would strip congressional appropriators and authorizers of power.
The package also calls for a two-thirds supermajority vote in both the House and the Senate to pass spending provisions that exceed the budget. In recent years, Republican leaders have routinely waived those budgetary limits to smooth the passage of the their agenda.
For example, the $534 billion Medicare bill that Congress passed last year would have died in the House for having exceeded budgetary limits had GOP leaders not waived those limits with a floor rule.
In addition, the package calls for the growth of discretionary and entitlement spending to be capped at the rate of inflation.
Conservatives also want to abolish the practice of designating spending as “emergencies,” a tactic that allows congressional leaders to circumvent fiscal constraints because such items do not count against the discretionary spending ceiling.
Another proposal would give the president the power to target and eliminate wasteful spending in appropriations bills. Presidential proposals to eliminate such spending would be given expedited consideration from Congress.
“I happen to agree with a lot in there,” said Castle of the conservative budget reform package. “I feel very strongly that you need some of these processes in place.”
Said one conservative lawmaker: “In the past, their big goal was to pass a budget. What that budget looked like, they didn’t necessarily care, as long as they got one.”
The resolve to force budget cuts also reflects concerns about Bush’s re-election.
“There’s no longer talk about the president having coattails,” said a conservative lawmaker. “This is Congress worrying about whether the president is going to get reelected, not the president worrying about Congress getting reelected.”
“The Budget Committee is probably the most unneeded committee in Congress,” said a conservative chief of staff. “Because whatever they pass, we blow through it. They’re probably the most irrelevant committee, but they should be the most important.”
Emails may actually work...
"Town Drunk Plans to Go on Wagon"
Which do you think is more likely to dry out?
Hah! More like mounting Election concerns.
Bull. I remember when they tried to eliminate the reserved congressional parking spaces at Reagan National Airport.
Stop! Logical error!
What's the only solution?
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