Budget Blowout: Republicans Disagree With Each Other on What to Cut

Many of us think of political parties as rigid and uniform, but each party contains diverse points of view. Often, there are disagreements within a party about the proper course of action, and sometimes those disputes prevent action altogether.

On November 10, 2005, House Republican leaders withdrew their budget proposal because of internal disputes over spending priorities and oil exploration. GOP leaders called the bill one of the most important in years, and now its future is uncertain.

Budget process

Congress’ projected spending for next year exceeded the limits set in the Fiscal Year 2006 budget resolution, so committees had to go back and figure out where to cut. The spending decreases were proposed to the House and Senate in the form of a budget reconciliation bill, which must be accepted or rejected by Congress.

The Senate passed its version of the bill, which amounted to $36 million in cuts, including $10 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.

The House version (or stalled version) cuts more deeply ($18 billion more deeply) than the Senate bill. Much of the difference comes from cuts to food stamps and student loan subsidies, and the bill contains similar cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.

Many House Republicans are opposed to these cuts; they don’t believe that the savings should come from federal anti-poverty and education programs.

Party fissures

The group that opposed the cuts, often called Republican "moderates," prevented the bill from coming to a vote because Republican leaders knew that they did not have the minimum 218 votes to pass it.

Some say that House Republicans broke apart because they are missing their leader, Tom DeLay of Texas, who had to step down when he was indicted for conspiracy and money laundering. His replacement, Roy Blunt of Missouri, may have been less effective in persuading Republicans to follow the White House, which is in favor of the cuts.

Bush’s low approval ratings may be another cause; Republican moderates are less eager to back him since, according to recent polls, the majority of the American public does not. But the moderates themselves cited cuts to food stamps, health care, student loans, and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Region (ANWR) as main reasons for opposing the bill.

ANWR and the military and security deficit

Before abandoning the bill altogether, Republican leaders tried dropping a contentious provision that would allow drilling in ANWR. Many moderate Republicans are against the measure, and Democrats solidly oppose it.

However, pulling ANWR didn’t pull the party together. In fact, more "conservative" Republicans resented the removal of the oil exploration project, which they believe will help America become less dependent on foreign oil.

On both sides of the aisle there is discussion about cutting special projects for Congressional districts, especially in the Transportation budget and the Energy budget. However, there are taxpayers in each of those district who asked their representative in the House for federal support for those local projects. Delivering federal dollars for the district is part of the representative system. When it is in someone else’s district it is called "pork." When it is in your own district it is called responding to your constituents’ needs.

The military and the deficit

Never to be forgotten are two separate costly facts: the war in Iraq and the security budget to try to prevent terrorist attacks. Much of those expenses are "off budget" - but they still cost taxpayer dollars and require us to borrow money by selling our government bonds to other countries - and paying them interest on what are actually loans.

For more on the ANWR debate, click here.

What do you think?

What are your priorities when it comes to the budget? What should we cut and what should we save? Do you agree with drilling in ANWR?

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Article Posted on: 11/12/2005