Posted on 09/18/2005 7:50:18 PM PDT by Crackingham
House Republicans are looking at delaying some federal spending, including money for a prescription drug benefit under Medicare and thousands of highway projects, to offset the cost of rebuilding the Gulf Coast, a leading GOP fiscal conservative said Sunday.
Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., said there is a need for dramatic spending cuts in "big-ticket items."
However, Democrats appearing on Sunday news programs questioned how President Bush can trim the budget to pay for Katrina recovery and support tax cuts for the wealthy.
"Where is he going to find roughly half a trillion dollars over the next several years for Iraq and for Katrina?" Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., asked on "Late Edition" on CNN. "I think we're not leveling with the American people."
Raising taxes or not making permanent the president's tax cuts is not the answer now, said Pence, head of the Republican Study Group, the spearhead group for the GOP's most conservative members.
"We simply cannot break the bank of the federal budget," Pence told ABC's "This Week."
"We simply can't allow a catastrophe of nature to become a catastrophe of debt for our children and grandchildren," he said.
The drug benefit program, set to begin Jan. 1, is expected to cost $40 billion a year. Last month President Bush signed a $286.4 billion highway bill that has been criticized for including about 6,000 projects added by lawmakers to benefit their districts and states.
Setting aside all of those additional highway projects and delaying the drug benefit by a year are expected to be among the proposals House Republicans are preparing for "Operation Offset" this week, Pence said.
"We need to rebuild," he said. "We can find the cuts in Washington, D.C., to do that, I really believe that."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Right on. Take that ill-advised drug benefit and stuff it in the trash can. It's been the President's worst policy idea yet. If Katrina can manage to get Congress to end that horrid program, maybe some good can come out of this yet.
**"We simply cannot break the bank of the federal budget," Pence told ABC's "This Week." **
LOL, they can and they will, Mr. Pence.
We could replace Air Force One with a Lear.
That would be a tremendous cut in expenditures. Bush could then lead by example.
Or maybe we could cut funding for those bridges to nowhere in Alaska. Or lining the Ronald Reagan Highway with trees.
Oh wait, those programs "create jobs."
Or maybe Bush can turn down the heat in the White House this winter and wear a sweater?
Never mind he has done nothing about more drilling. No new refineries have been built, I have to conserve. Politicians have one thing in common, they all know how to squeeze the turnip.
However, did you notice that these congresspeople did "the obvious"? They aimed for the lowest hanging fruit on the tree -- the easiest target to hit, the prescription drug plan. Do we see any of them going back to their own state pork projects, saying, "Oh, we really don't need that $12 million to study lobster semen" or "My constituents will gladly forgo the $36 million for the Boer history museum."
As I wrote, I'd be glad to see a dent in the Rx drug plan. But I will have NO accolades for these politicians -- of either party -- until they start curbing themselves of these wasteful and ridiculous pork spending habits. I'm not holding my breath.
If the GOP Congress makes some serious spending cuts to pay for the Katrina relief, it will be a big step in the right direction.
>>>>Raising taxes or not making permanent the president's tax cuts is not the answer now, said Pence, head of the Republican Study Group, the spearhead group for the GOP's most conservative members.
Many FReepers have said Mike Pence is a Reagan conservative. From just these two statements of his, I would agree. There is plenty of pork in the highway bill and the energy bill to make up tens of billions of dollars. Freezing the PDP for a year could save another $50-billion.
Were theres a will, theres a way.
Not really. It would just push all the support staff off onto other aircraft. It would be a wash.
I've got my beefs against Bush too, but AF1 isn't among them.
AF 1, along with it's communications capabilities is not Bush's plane, but the Presidents plane.
How is pushing 40 billion a year in spending back a year considered a cut ?
Members of congress are for cutting pork as long as it isn't their pork.
Yes, it's been his worst.
Safe bet, huhh?????
Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., said there is a need for dramatic spending cuts in "big-ticket items."
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Pence Bump!
Perfect argument for term limits and a line item veto.
Is there to be a "BOER HISTORY MUSEUM" in the United States? I simply can't believe that one.
there once was a line item veto...SCOTUS adiosed it.
Not sure how it can be made constitutional
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