CT Congressmen Question Priorities of Budget After Terrorist Attacks
WASHINGTON – As recovery efforts continue at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and as Congress begins resuming normal congressional business, Connecticut members of Congress are examining priorities for the federal budget after the terrorist attacks.
Congressman James Maloney (D-5th) said that Congress should adopt a new budget resolution because the events of last Tuesday have such profound economic impact. It would certainly be very appropriate to adopt a revised budget resolution. I would support doing that.” He added that it was time to resume normal congressional business. “People are still kind of in emergency overdrive,” he said. “It is always hard where there are in effect breaking developments to not only try to deal with those but also to regain a longer-term perspective.”
Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-6th), who is the chairwoman of the of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, said that health care in general and medical care for the elderly should be a focus on federal spending. “Some of the big issues that have come up are big issues because they have been neglected and need to be addressed,” she said. “There’s some in Medicare that we really can’t wait to address.
Johnson said that Congress needs to offer choice of services to Medicare recipients and must help the elderly meet the high cost of prescription drugs.. “We might not be able to add prescription drugs this year, but we have got to buck up this system because around Connecticut, we are going to see a real exodus of providers and a loss of access for seniors, if we don’t do something.”
Senator Christopher Dodd said at a breakfast press conference that he supports any of President’s Bush’s requests for additional federal relief for victims of the terrorist attacks. But he added that Congress should be careful about federal spending. “No matter what package we are considering-I’m not rejecting any of this-I want us to approach this with a certain degree of caution so we don’t just react with passion in the heat of the moment,” he said. He said that he would support any measure that he believes is necessary.
Johnson said that although fighting terrorism is a primary concern, Congress needs to begin moving ahead with legislation. “People’s eyes and ears and emotions” are focused on the attacks,” she said, “but there are a lot of things we have to do. We have to look at the airlines industry. We’ve got to do that promptly. We have to finish the budget, and underneath the budget there are lots of issues.”
Johnson said that Congress should examine how to deal with less money for Social Security. “We have to look at our original [budget] resolution that does not dig into Social Security,” Johnson said, referring to Congress’s vow to safeguard the surpluses in the Social Security and Medicare hospital insurance trust funds.
Johnson also said that meeting the budget for this fiscal year would be very difficult after the $40 billion that has now been allocated for emergency relief. “We’ve already given the president more money for defense, and we’ll certainly meet the needs, but I think we’ll work through the budget process a little more deliberatively than some are predicting,” Johnson said.
“We do also need to fund priorities like education because this experience is a clear indicator that the future has to demand people that are capable of very sophisticated, technical jobs,” she said. “We need to keep our eye on the priorities that are most important. Education, quality healthcare for people, those are very, very important priorities.”
Maloney agreed that education and healthcare should remain a priority. “I certainly don’t think we should we back off on our commitment to make investments in education or do what we need to do for other needs like health care or protecting the financial or health security of the American people,” he said.
Dodd said that Congress must be wary of financing every request and be sure that tax dollars are spent wisely. “Our job becomes collectively to see to it that we don’t sit back a year or two or five from now and see the kinds of decisions that were made because people were afraid to stand up, fearful they were going to be attacked somehow for being un-American or lacking in patriotism because they suggested maybe a massive capital gains tax is not exactly what was needed,” he said.
Dodd also said Congress can’t neglect other important issues such as helping the airline, travel and leisure industries. It is “very important that we don’t jump so precipitously that we are incapable of doing all of the things we have to do to one degree or another,” he said.
Maloney said that Congress must now look at the longer-range implications and reexamine the budget and revenue sources. “A budget is a two-sided document. It’s not just the expenses but also the income,” he said. “That it our responsibility, to not only act for today but act in a way that makes sense or will make sense six months from now, a year from now, five years from now. That is what we are going to be dealing with for a long time to come here.”
Johnson said that balancing the budget “is a discipline. As pressures arise, the discipline breaks some, then it comes back. But I think there is enough commitment to the overall discipline of having expenditures stay within revenues and using Social Security [surpluses] to reduce your debt. That discipline will overall prevail.”
