Posted on 09/22/2005 9:19:24 AM PDT by Gipper08
House conservatives called for broad spending cuts yesterday to offset emergency funding in response to Hurricane Katrina, a move that triggered heightened friction between leadership officials and the right wing of the GOP conference.
The tensions illustrate a growing divide within the party about how to handle hurricane relief as another storm heads for the battered Gulf Coast region.
Yesterday’s rally was an echo of the so-called Republican Revolution, when the current majority first swept into power behind their brash new Speaker, Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), after the 1994 elections. Conference conservatives pointed to a number of government programs, both big and small, they would like to eliminate from the federal budget.
Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC), whose office helped organize the rally, gave a careful disclaimer before other members took to the podium that each offset was not endorsed by every member present.
Some of the suggested targets are long-standing targets of conservative scorn, such as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the foreign-operations budget and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Other legislative wish-list items to be included on the congressional chopping block were money for Egypt, funding for the mission to Mars, federal matching funds for presidential candidates and foreign aid to any country that does not back a sufficient percentage of American proposals to the United Nations.
Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) did not suggest any cuts but recommended the federal government sell its unused land to private investors.
One of the biggest proposed offsets was Rep. Jeff Flake’s (R-Ariz.) call to postpone the Medicare prescription-drug benefit one year. Flake, a vocal opponent of the bill when it passed the House during a contentious three-hour vote in 2003, said postponing the benefit would save the federal government approximately $40 billion next year.
“Our seniors have gone 220 years without a prescription-drug benefit,” Flake said. “I think they can wait one more year.”
The White House flatly rejected that suggestion earlier this week. The benefit goes into effect Jan. 1.
Members and aides throughout the conference, particularly Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), have questioned the feasibility of the suggested cuts. DeLay told the conference this morning that the highway bill took two years to complete and was significantly less expensive than the one that was initially proposed.
“A lot of this looks like they’re mugging for camera attention rather than focusing on what they can get done,” a GOP leadership aide said. “They’re setting up a problem with their own conservative base if they can’t achieve what they’re looking to get done.”
In response, one conservative aide said, “The majority leader asked for offsets and so we brought him offsets, and we look forward to working with him to get them enacted. The last time I checked, the conservative base is the Republican base, not our own base, and it would do them well to listen to conservative folks out in the country.”
Asked how conservatives could push some of these initiatives if leadership is not behind them, Pence said, “Don’t leave the American people out of the equation.”
That public discourse has rankled senior Republicans, including members of leadership and committee chairmen.
During a meeting of elected leadership Tuesday night, Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) said the spending debate should be held behind closed doors, not in full view of the media, and Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle (R-Iowa) said it was the administration’s responsibility to dictate spending restraints.
DeLay echoed Thomas’s message during a morning conference meeting yesterday. Throughout the week, the majority leader has reminded members and the media that spending cuts have long been a priority of the Republican-led Congress.
Ron Bonjean, the communications director to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), convened a meeting yesterday afternoon with some of the RSC press aides whose bosses were involved in yesterday’s rally to remind them that Republican initiatives have created job growth and lowered the deficit, according to a GOP aide.
Hundreds of staff members, reporters and selected supporters gathered on the Cannon Terrace for yesterday’s rally, an exceptional attendance by all accounts.
A large group of supporters clad in white “Freedom Works” T-shirts provided a backdrop for the assembled RSC members. They held signs throughout the briefing that read: “Victims over Pork,” “Rescue Taxpayers from a Flood … of RED INK” and “Don’t Make a Natural Disaster into a Budget Disaster.”
Conservatives even expressed concern for Bush’s financial legacy.
“Folks, I don’t want my president to leave office with a $10 trillion deficit,” said Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.). “I don’t want China to own more of our country through our debt.”
“Don’t leave the American people out of the equation.”
It hasn't stopped them yet.
Call your Congressman and demand they support OPERATION OFFSET.Pence is right,it is up to us!
FYI.
Did this last week and again this week. Phone and email. Keep doing it!
No, I do NOT support it. He wants to cut health benefits for the military. This is a hekkuva way to "support our troops."
The best way to support the troops is to get the Federal Government TOTALLY out of Health care.Socialism always leads to POVERTY!
So how much for PBS again?
Reduced health care benefits could save $2.4 billion over 10 years.
Please, do not support this!
That could be one of the dumbest statements I've EVER seen posted on FR.
I already sent a very nice message to my congressman, Scott Garrett (5th district, NJ), this morning. I saw him on CSPAN with the others and was very, very pleased. Who'd have thought they'd have to fight their own to get spending cuts? Washington corrupts.
If you won't take care of your soldiers and their families, who can fault them if they decide to take a job in the private sector so they can take care of these things themselves. Go fight your own war next time.
That's total BS. First, it's a proposal. You oppose ANY effort to cut if anyone even SUGGESTS a cut you don't like? Second, there is no proposed cut in health benefits. The proposal is to OFFER incentives if military families will CHOOSE a less costly option. That's not a cut in benefits, liar.
Some of these people "support the troops" about as much as Cindy Sheehan does. At least she doesn't pretend to be a conservative.
That federal matching dollars for presidential candidates should be immediately stopped. This is one of the reasons we get whackjobs running for the presidency.
I quoted directly from the article. Who's the liar?
The Viagra for Grandpa program is going to do more to bankrupt this country than SS will.
Oh, that's rich...the Homer Simpson philosophy: "You'll only fail, so don't even try". Seems appearance is once again trumping results.
Makes sense, I guess; we're all too stupid to recognize a good-faith effort or even a compromise as counting for anything worthwhile these days. It's far more important to satisfy all of the peeps, all of the time with a bunch of fake empty rhetoric.
You're the liar. Notice how you left out all the details:
• Service members would be offered cash if they are willing to accept reduced health care benefits for their families. “The less comprehensive plan would encourage individuals to be more cost-conscious when purchasing health care products by including deductibles, co-payments and a maximum annual out-of-pocket expenditure limit,” according to a written explanation provided by the study group. Reduced health care benefits could save $2.4 billion over 10 years.
The proposal calls for a completely voluntary offer that incentives efficiency. It's not a cut at all. See? You're a liar, or else you just can't read. Why'd you leave out all the details and just print an inflammatory sentence out of context? Gunning for a job at Reuters or AP?
If they're saving money, it's a cut. Spin it all you want, but this is so Clintonian--and Carter-like--that it makes me want to hurl that a Republican came up with it. YOU talk as though everyone in the military spends the day in the clinic just because they can? How contemptable of you! I don't know anyone (although some no doubt exist) who would want to head for the clinic when they didn't need to!
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