Adam Hughes is a senior policy analyst and Gary Bass is the founder and executive director of OMB Watch , a nonprofit research and advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.
Tonight the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on a bill that makes up to $54 billion in spending cuts over the next five years, roughly one-third of which will come from programs serving low-income families. Pushed by conservatives in the House, this bill paves the way for a separate bill that would add another $70 billion in tax cuts, primarily targeted to the wealthy. This brazen reverse Robin Hood move is even more outrageous in light of the gaping holes in our national safety net on display in the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina.
Today’s vote is being called by some House members and aides the most important vote of the year, as rightly it should be. Unfortunately, rather than being held up as the test of national values that it should be, it is instead being watched as a test of the Republican leadership. The result is “horse-trading—protecting one program while cutting another—to find exactly the right number of votes to pass these venal cuts.
Still reeling from the indictment of former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, GOP leaders are finding holding their caucus together a markedly more difficult task. In DeLay’s absence, the Republican Study Committee, a group of more than 100 House conservatives, has emerged as the playground bully, hijacking the priorities of the spending bill and ramming through a 58 percent increase to the already-harsh cuts that were previously agreed upon.
House conservatives claim these additional cuts are necessary to "offset" the cost of Hurricane Katrina. This is ridiculous, especially in light of the fact that any savings from the cuts will immediately be lost to $70 billion in new tax cuts—benefiting the richest Americans—that will be voted on before the end of the year. The cumulative effect of the two proposals (i.e., cutting spending and taxes) will actually result in an increase, not decrease, in the national deficit.
The spending cuts have already fractured the GOP in the House. Since Hurricane Katrina, House moderates have grown reluctant to support cuts to programs that help low-income Americans. With such cuts making up the bulk of savings in the bill, House leadership has had a still more difficult time garnering support for it.
Just how its supporters are able to reconcile the House package—with its drastic, even draconian cuts—against their rhetoric of “compassionate” conservatism remains to be seen. The House bill will cut food stamps for over 300,000 working families, at a time when the government reports millions more Americans experiencing “food insecurity” for the fifth straight year. It will increase drug costs and raise co-payments for millions of Medicaid beneficiaries, even as 45 million Americans lack health insurance and rely on the program. And it will increase federal student loan costs an average of $5,800 per student, despite skyrocketing tuition costs. The bill would also cut $4.9 billion for child support enforcement, $577 million for foster care and $732 million for supplemental security income for the disabled.
Unfortunately, even with a weakened leadership, radical conservatives pushing the agenda and a divided caucus, the GOP may still pull out a victory. The House leadership has finagled its way out of other tricky spots in the past. But with the Republican Study Committee threatening to vote for a new leadership in January, there is unusual pressure to pass the cuts, and the wheeling and dealing will intensify in the lead-up to the vote. House leaders will be doing everything in their power, even reducing cuts and removing provisions, while holding open the vote for hours to pressure individual members.
Most troubling, even if they are able to cajole or compel enough House members to support the bill through backroom deals, those same leaders can put back anything during the conference committee with the Senate that they had to abandon in order to win votes on the floor. With the conference complete and the final version sent back to each chamber for one last approval, such legislation is incredibly difficult to stop.
Reps. Hastert, Acting Majority Leader Roy Blunt and other House leaders have a lot riding on this vote, needing not only to pass harmful cuts proving to their base that the GOP is focused on fiscal discipline, but also in the interest of retaining their leadership positions. Many in Washington are less concerned with specific eleventh hour deals than they are with the Republican leadership’s ability (or lack thereof) to hold its caucus together.
But beyond that, the vote will be a barometer of the values of Congress. Will the House slash funding of programs that help foster parents care for children in need, law enforcement to track down deadbeat parents and working-poor families to put food on their tables? Will Congress tell us to tighten our belts during these tough times only to, in the next breath, call for additional tax cuts for the wealthy? These are concerns that involve every American.
Poll after poll shows the public believes the right way to “offset” Gulf Coast recovery is to roll back the tax cuts for wealthy families, not to make cuts to programs serving vulnerable populations—and certainly not by passing another tax cut for the wealthy. Pressure to rein in the far-right will be on moderate Republicans, who will ultimately decide the fate of this bill. We hope they remember the constituents whose best interests they were elected to represent and that their vote on the bill will showcase more than just their political savvy, but also their values.
