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Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Heritage Seriously Concerned About Fiscal Responsibility- NOT!
The Heritage Foundation just put out a report on the fiscal responsibility-ness of the Senate's SCHIP bill. It's stupid, but it begins with the fair point that the legislation would sunset, in 2013, the funding increases it would set up.
The Senate bill would gradually increase federal funding for SCHIP from the current $5.6 billion level to $14.1 billion in 2012. Then, suddenly, funding would plummet to $6.2 billion and $4.7 billion over the subsequent two years, and not top $5.0 billion again through 2017 (see chart 1).[4] If Congress enacts this legislation, lawmakers in 2013 will face two options:
1. Drop SCHIP funding 70 percent, substantially reducing the number of enrollees, or
2. Add approximately $60 billion in new spending over the next five years to maintain current enrollment.[5]
There is also a third option: add the $60 billion in new spending in 2013, when SCHIP will need to be reauthorized anyway, and pay for it. Indeed, if Congress does not pay for it then, they'd violate PAYGO rules if they're still around. Heritage is lying when they say there are only two options and that a paid-for renewal isn't one of them.
Ideally, Congress would have paid for this expansion now and gotten it over with. But just because the bill's finances are less than ideal, doesn't mean a serious violation has occurred. There will be pressure to extend this funding and not pay for it, but folks like us will bring pressure going the opposite way, too, and no rule has been broken.
And to attack a budget gimmick with more smoke and mirrors shouldn't fly either. Two wrongs don't make a right and all.
Posted by Matt Lewis
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