Feb. 2—By a slim 214–216 vote Feb. 1, U.S. House Republican leaders, backed by the Bush administration, muscled through a package of nearly $40 billion in spending cuts that will slash programs vital to working families, especially low-income Americans and those trying to pay for college.
The vote paves the way for the next step in the Bush administration’s budget reconciliation package, a $70 billion tax giveaway for the rich that could come up for a vote in late February or early March.
Noting this is the second time in as many months that Congress revealed its skewed priorities, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says “With today’s vote, it’s clear what kind of economic future the President and his allies in Congress are shaping for America’s workers: A future that unfairly rewards the privileged while burdening society’s vulnerable with additional hardship.”
In December, the House narrowly passed the bill (212–206), which then went to the U.S. Senate. The Senate made minor changes on the eve of the December congressional break that required a second House vote.
The bill is “an attack on working families—slashing $25 billion over 10 years from their health care coverage while taking nothing away from HMOs and the pharmaceutical industry,” says Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.).
13 Million Low-Income Americans Will Lose Health Care Under New Budget
Democrats such as Dingell and a small number of Republican lawmakers strongly opposed the domestic spending cut bill, which slices health care funding for the poor, cuts child support enforcement funds and shreds $12.7 billion from the federal student loan program, the largest cut in the program’s history.
In a Jan. 27 report, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the cuts to Medicaid over the next decade would impose new costs on 13 million poor and working poor recipients. The bill’s new fees essentially would end insurance coverage for 65,000 Medicaid enrollees, 60 percent of them children, by 2015. Medicaid is the nation’s federal health insurance program for poor and low-income families and their children.
According to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal, the student loan cuts would increase the average student loan burden by $2,000 and cost parents an average of $3,000 more in interest for a child’s education.
Meanwhile, more than 84 percent of the House tax cut bill passed in December would go to households with the top 20 percent of income. The Senate in November passed a similar but slightly smaller tax cut bill. Republican congressional leaders say a House and Senate conference is expected to produce a final version that likely will include the major House tax cuts for the wealthy, including capital gains, dividend and business tax cuts.
The Bush administration and Republican congressional leaders claim huge cuts in working family programs are needed to reduce the federal deficit and pay for Gulf Coast hurricane recovery. But the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy exceed the spending cuts and add to the federal deficit.
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