Demanding a federal budget that is fair, responsible, and meets our nation's priorities

Monday, September 19, 2005

House GOP Reps Urge Bush to Cut Budget Further

Last week, twenty-one Republican members of the House sent a letter to President Bush, in which they urged him to cut non-defense discretionary spending to offset additional spending dealing with the hurricane aftermath. The letter said, "Congress and the President have a historic opportunity to show the American people that we are not afraid to make hard choices on cutting current federal spending when a national disaster requires investment of tens, possibly hundreds, of billions of dollars."

Cutting spending elsewhere in the budget, most likely for supports and programs benefiting low-income Americans is certainly not a hard choice for Congress as they continue to push the completion of reconciliation bills cutting entitlement spending simply to offset the cost of new tax cuts or the rich. Perhaps Congress and President Bush should be sincere in their claims to be able to make hard choices and call upon those Americans who can best afford to pay to shoulder just a tiny bit more of the burden through choosing not to pass new tax cuts for the wealthy this year. Cutting non-defense discretionary programs to pay for emergency hurricane relief funding is akin to robbing Peter to pay Paul and continues to concentrate the burden on low- and middle-income Americans.

Also, Reps. Hensarling and Flake, members of the conservative Republican Study Committee, sent a letter to Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader Tom DeLay, in which they suggested that the 2006 implementation of the Medicare prescription drug benefit be delayed in order to contain costs, which are expected to sky-rocket with all of the post-Katrina spending. In reality, though, these costs should be dealt with by promoting an agenda based on shared sacrifice -- not on cutting money further from the budget so that people don't have access to the services they rely upon. It's time the President to call for a renewal of shared sacrifice in rebuilding the Gulf Coast through our tax code.