Republicans who control Congress are engaged in a vigorous tug-of-war over proposed cuts in federal programs. They are using the spending requirements of hurricane recovery as a rationale for slashing safety net and education programs. They would cut these programs, believe it or not, even while renewing tax cuts that were originally enacted when the national was running a surplus.
That surplus sank to a $319 billion deficit in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.
Congress has so far provided $62 billion for Gulf Coast hurricane recovery efforts, and that price tag is expected to grow much higher. It’s obviously time to rethink the government’s overall financial picture. Rolling back some, if not all, of the tax cuts would be more equitable and more effective than making cuts to domestic spending programs.
The Senate spent much of last week struggling to trim $34 billion from deficits projected to total $1.6 trillion over five years. But amazingly, Senate Republicans were planning to advance a $70 billion tax cut bill after finishing work on the supposed deficit reduction package.
“Their budget actually would make the deficit worse,” said Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “That’s fiscally irresponsible at any time, but especially when we should be saving to prepare for the baby boomers’ retirement.”
Reid is right, whether judged by simple arithmetic or common sense.
But the picture wasn’t much better across the Capitol, where the House Budget Committee approved its own bill to trim the deficit by $54 billion over five years on a party- line vote. Differences in the House and Senate measures will have to be reconciled before going to the president.
The House package includes about $11.9 billion in cuts to Medicaid and $844 million in food stamps, and reduces spending on child-support programs by $4.9 billion. The proposal also cuts student-loan programs by $14.3 billion. The Senate didn’t cut student aid. The House bill also proposes raising $2.5 billion through lease sales to oil companies to drill in an Alaska wildlife refuge. A similar provision in the Senate bill survived a challenge by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D- Wash., 51-48, Thursday.
Once again, we urge Congress to consider whether the nation can afford to continue cutting taxes while the deficit is ballooning out of control.
