House GOP Seeks to Offset Katrina Spending By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL,
Associated Press Writer
Sun Sep 18, 3:45 PM ET
WASHINGTON - 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 (news, bio, voting record), 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
(news, bio, voting record), 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."
Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said tax increases will not be a part of the
recovery plan he intends to offer this week. Although cuts in spending
and delays in spending already approved will not be in his proposal,
Vitter said he is open to considering such actions.
Vitter said people should not take on faith that Republicans will make
cuts in light of the high spending during the Bush administration.
"We haven't been disciplined enough over the last 10 years. We need to
do that, and we needed to do that before Katrina. We still need to do
that over the medium and long term," Vitter said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., said an
across-the-board cut in spending, excluding defense spending, would be
appropriate. He suggested lawmakers consider delaying the drug benefit
and review the highway and energy bills passed this summer. The energy
bill totaled $12.3 billion over 10 years.
"We're failing when it comes to controlling spending," Graham told
"Fox News Sunday."
"The idea that this government of $2.4 trillion is efficiently being
spent I disagree with," he said.
Former President Clinton said that Democrats should oppose
policies that result in the government borrowing more money from other
countries to pay for the costs of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
rebuilding the Gulf Coast and providing tax cuts to the wealthiest.
He said Democrats should make those policies an issue in next year's
congressional elections.
"We depend on Japan, China, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and
Korea primarily to basically loan us money every day of the year,"
Clinton said. "I don't think it makes any sense. I think it's wrong."
Biden and Sen. Jon Kyl (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., appearing
together, disagreed over whether the federal budget could be trimmed.
Bush "just sent us a budget, presumably with nothing but necessary
spending in it," Biden said.
Kyl, saying "there's a lot of fat in the current budget," proposed
taking a fourth of the money allocated to the highway bill and
redirecting it to the Gulf region.
Kyl cautioned against raising taxes, saying they slow the economy and
thus diminish tax revenues. Biden, however, suggested forgoing further
tax cuts for the wealthy and the elimination of the estate tax.
Calling talk among Republican senators of proceeding with a plan to
repeal the estate tax "mind-boggling," Sen. Barak Obama, D-Ill., said
the country could not fight a war in Iraq, rebuild the Gulf region and
deal with other domestic needs while cutting taxes for the wealthy.
"We need some adult supervision of the budget process. And we need to
take responsibility for this process. That's something that we need
from the president as well as our congressional leaders," Obama told
"Face the Nation" on CBS.
--
"War is God's way of teaching Americans geography" -- Ambrose Bierce
"America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy." -- John Updike
"Long term commitment in relationships is only necessary because it takes
so damn long to raise children. Marriage may well be some kind of trick
to keep the males around beyond sexual satiation." -- Captain Compassion
"Progress is the increasing control of the environment by life.
--Will Durant
Joseph R. Darancette
res0mp8t@NOSPAMverizon.net
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