Presidential Budget Proposal Draws Praise and Criticism
WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 – New Hampshire’s all-Republican congressional delegation applauds President Bush’s tightfisted $2.75 trillion budget for next year as a way to maintain America’s financial stability. Interest groups whose programs are targeted disagree.
The budget aims to cut the $427 billion deficit in half by 2009, thus quelling calls from abroad for the United States to improve its fiscal house. In the process, the president would eliminate 150 programs, including 48 education programs, scale back Medicaid by $60 billion over 10 years and curb local programs like law enforcement assistance. But the 2006 budget proposal does not account for war spending, which is expected to top $80 billion for this year, or the costs of revamping Social Security.
Sen. Judd Gregg said he thinks the president’s budget is on the right track for America’s financial future.
“I think if we get the fiscal house of government in order and start to move toward a balanced budget, that will help all activity in this country,” said Gregg, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.
“I think we can cut [the deficit] in half by 2008,” a year earlier than Bush’s forecast, Gregg said in an interview on Thursday. “We shouldn’t back away from it as a goal. If we start giving up on that now before we’ve even written the budget or the appropriations bills we won’t be doing our job.”
Rep. Jeb Bradley also praised the president for setting a strict spending limit. “I think that the most important thing is that the president’s budget prescribes fiscal restraint,” he said in an interview. “We have to take a hard line on spending at the same time we win a war on terrorism and keep the country safe and secure.”
In a written statement, Sen. John Sununu shared these sentiments.
“We need to make sure our country continues to allocate the resources necessary to national security to ensure our troops in the field have what they need to get the job done, and that means we’re going to have to restrain the growth of government here at home,” he said. “We need to review the thousands of government programs and find those.where we can use the money better elsewhere, where we can consolidate efforts where programs have outlived their usefulness, or determine where resources just aren’t being used effectively.”
With so many programs on the chopping block, however, some groups are expressing concern that not enough attention is being paid to needs at home.
Law enforcement officials were surprised by $1.5 billion in proposed cuts to local law enforcement assistance programs, which have helped police departments with money for equipment, have run victims’ support programs and supported anti-crime initiatives.
“I always thought homeland security began at home,” said Plaistow Police Chief Stephen Savage, the president of the New Hampshire Association of Police Chiefs. “Many of us are wondering, with emphasis on homeland security being so critical, why would you cut funding that affects all these grants and abilities to do those kinds of services.”
With the programs Bush wants to trim or eliminate, New Hampshire police have “been able to do a significant amount with adding officers on the street, purchasing a significant amount of equipment and expanding our communication infrastructure in the state,” Savage said. “It’s had a positive impact on juvenile justice, and victims’ funds have been expanded.”
But Gregg said it was “premature to start getting into what specific programs are going to end up as winners and losers. Clearly it will be a different set than the president wants because Congress is going to have its opinion, but it will be in the context of a very stringent budget, so there will be winners and losers.”
Last year the president proposed 65 program cuts, but Congress went along with fewer than six, according to The New York Times. Nevertheless, some groups are still worried about how they would be affected if the president’s proposals for their programs are accepted.
The National Governors Association says it is worried that proposed cutbacks in Medicaid would leave more of the burden of supporting enrollees up to the states
“The Medicaid program is growing rapidly because health care inflation is running two to three times the general inflation rate and the case load has grown 33 percent over the last four years,” according to an association statement. “We hope the Administration and Congress will work with states to develop program efficiencies and other policies that can save both the states and federal government money, as opposed to shifting costs to the states through budget cuts, caps or other mechanisms.”
In Gregg’s view, “There is a lot of spending in Medicaid that could be done more efficiently. I believe if the federal government gives the state a smaller rate of increase in Medicaid but a greater range of flexibility, you will probably get better services for a lower rate of growth.”
A spokeswoman for Rep. Charles Bass said Thursday that the congressman will work to ensure that [Medicaid] coverage is secured. “As a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Congressman Bass will have a unique opportunity to evaluate and craft any measures taken to modernize the Medicaid system,” Margo Shideler said. “And certainly his top priority in doing this would be to ensure that none of these updates would adversely affect New Hampshire’s Medicaid system and those who depend on it .”
Education groups also are concerned about shortfalls. To help pay for expansion of the No Child Left Behind program, the president proposed cuts to programs such as Vocational Education State Grants and Teach-Prep Education State Grants, which administration officials said Monday can be made up in the new High School Initiative, the proposed secondary school phase of No Child Left Behind.
“This is the first budget in a decade that will actually cut money for education, a 0.9 percent decrease,” said Daniel Kaufman, a spokesman for the National Education Association. “If the president’s budget were adopted today, there would be a $12 billion shortfall on top of an existing $27 billion shortfall, making it a $39 billion shortfall overall.”
“States and school districts have budget crises of their own and are struggling to meet the stringent requests of No Child Left Behind, and those costs are rising,” he said. ” The focus should be on fixing flaws of the No Child Left Behind as it stands and to get the funding to get job done.”
Bradley, in response, said: “I think we have to look at it, but its not just education, it’s all the other areas the president has cut, for instance agriculture subsidies. We have to make sure that government money is spent in the most efficient way possible to make a more efficient delivery of services.”
“There are going t o be a number of very difficult choices that we have to make if we are going to get our fiscal house in order,” he said.
Bass said in a written statement that although he believes “President Bush’s proposal provides a firm foundation on which Congress will structure a sound and restrained budget for the 2006,” he has concerns about the cuts in education spending. ” These programs are vital to the well-being of countless Americans, and I remain committed to ensuring the government meets its obligations to them.”
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