Budget Cuts: The Final Showdown

The Senate's return to Washington this week means that conferees have begun final negotiations on the budget reconciliation bill. The two versions of this bill, which aims to cut entitlement spending over five years, contain vast differences, particularly with respect to cuts to Medicaid, student loans, and food stamps. Legislative work on the drafting and passage of the reconciliation bill not only proved to be an obstacle to Congress' appropriations work, but has already extended the congressional session as members have engaged in a showdown over certain contentious provisions, including exploratory drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), funding cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and popular social welfare programs such as food stamps. Although Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), the Majority Whip who is currently acting as House Majority leader, mentioned last week that the House might finish its work as early as this Thursday, House aides were told to keep their schedules open through Dec. 23. This unusually long extension would, at least in part, be due to what promises to be a serious face off over ANWR language in the final budget bill. The House only narrowly passed its version of the budget bill, 217-215 last month. GOP leaders struggled for weeks before they were able to muster enough votes to pass the bill and ultimately needed to remove the ANWR language to appease House moderates. While a number of these House moderates will not support a final conference report that includes ANWR language, Senate negotiators are applying pressure to have it included. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) is leading this fight, as he and other proponents view the filibuster-proof reconciliation bill as their best chance politically to move forward with what has been a 25-year attempt to open the refuge for drilling. Stevens has used his position as Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman as leverage by refusing to move forward with the Pentagon budget until he receives assurances that ANWR will be included in the final budget reconciliation bill. He is also touting the recent CBO estimates that have doubled potential revenues from Artic drilling to $10 billion. Half of these "savings" would benefit the federal government, which Stevens claims could mean more sweeteners, in the form of either rebuilding projects for Gulf Coast lawmakers or more than $1 billion in low-income heating subsidies. In addition to ANWR, lawmakers and Hill staff have been haggling over proposed cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and foods stamps. Reports indicate that negotiators are moving toward dropping the House's nearly $700 million in food stamp cuts as well as language reauthorizing the nation's welfare programs, but details on cuts to Medicare and Medicaid are still unavailable. While the House proposed no cuts to Medicare and over $11 billion in cuts to Medicaid, the Senate bill proposed $5 billion in cuts to Medicare and $4.3 billion in cuts to Medicaid. Unlike the House version, the Senate bill spared beneficiaries from feeling the impact of the cuts by aiming them solely at administrative changes. It is still unclear how these differences will be reconciled. While the House budget bill cuts $50 billion from mandatory programs over five years and the Senate version cuts $35 billion, reports have indicated that the final budget bill will cut around $45 billion from these programs over five years. This figure, ironically, is exactly one-fifth of the amount that President Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts cost the Treasury this year alone ($225 billion). These "savings" unfortunately amount to little more than cuts to services for low-income Americans that Congress is turning around and putting into the pockets of the wealthiest taxpayers in the form of tax cuts. Despite congressional rhetoric, these bills will increase deficits. A number of advocacy, community, human needs, labor and watchdog groups have joined together to form the Emergency Campaign for America's Priorities (ECAP), which is dedicated both to fighting the passage of both the tax and budget reconciliation bills, and to holding politicians accountable for voting against the interests of their constituents. ECAP is holding a number of events both nationwide and in Washington this week, including a prayer circle with Jim Wallis of the Christian social justice group Sojourners. Wallis has frequently referred to the budget as a "moral document" and is staging a rally at the Capitol to protest budget decisions that reward the rich at the expense of the poor. More information can be found at the websites of Sojourners and ECAP.
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