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Thursday, March 10, 2005
House Budget Committee Passes Chairman’s Mark
The House Budget Committee passed the Chairman’s Mark last night on party lines, by a vote of 22-15. While the Chairman’s Mark calls for decreased spending on domestic programs, it actually increases rather than decreases the deficit over time, despite continued statements by Congressional GOP leaders that the deficit will be cut in half by 2009. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates the House Committee’s proposal would increase the deficit by $126.9 billion. This is largely due to the fact that tax cuts are included in the mark. The House budget proposal cuts programs $216 billion over five years; there are significant reductions in veteran’s benefits, environmental protection, and spending on education. At the same time it proposes increasing spending for defense and international discretionary programs by $202 billion.
The House Budget Committee’s proposal also proposes deeper cuts to Medicaid than the President proposed in his budget. Although the Chairman’s Mark does not specify which mandatory programs should be cut, the Mark does instruct the Energy and Commerce Committee to make reductions of $20 billion over five years to programs under their jurisdiction, one of which is Medicaid. As this Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report states, “These Medicaid cuts are likely to push hard-pressed states to eliminate coverage for a substantial number of low-income people, increasing the ranks of the uninsured and the underinsured.”
Even though national revenues are lower than they have been since the 1950’s, and are helping to build our record-level deficit, the Chairman’s Mark -- like the President’s budget proposal -- suggests passing new tax cuts. The proposal specifically calls for the passage of $106 billion worth of tax cuts over the next five years, and includes an extension of dividend and capital gains tax cuts, which were enacted in 2003 but are slated to expire in 2008. The benefits of these two tax cuts flow overwhelmingly to those with the highest incomes. $45 billion of those tax cuts were set aside to be protected under reconciliation instructions, which is smaller than the $70 billion the Senate endorsed to be protected under reconciliation. The House will more than likely move more than one tax bill this year however; one in the reconciliation process and likely another one outside reconciliation to make the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent.
Posted by Becky Lewis
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