House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, Tuesday cautioned that Republican leaders have made no final decisions about how to pay for fiscal 2000 appropriations bills, despite GOP members' newfound support for cutting total spending across-the-board rather than tap the Social Security surplus.
The across-the-board reduction plan, championed by House Budget Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Majority Whip Don Nickles, R-Okla., gained currency among GOP rank-and-file members at Monday night's GOP Conference meeting as a preferable alternative to delaying Earned Income Tax Credit payments.
The EITC payment change, which would save $8.7 billion in fiscal 2000, is being used to help pay for the fiscal 2000 Labor-HHS spending bill marked up by the House Appropriations Committee last week. But while that approach has been repudiated by Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the frontrunner for the GOP's presidential nomination, the leadership can only drop the controversial provision if they provide alternative offsets.
Armey, who said he supports an across-the-board cut, said the approach "is easier in the abstract than in the concrete," once members realize how their favorite programs would be affected. Because Senate GOP leaders favor the idea, Armey said House leaders will continue exploring its viability with their Senate counterparts, noting, "We need to work out these trade-off decisions with the Senate before [members] have to vote" on them. Key senators such as Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and Budget Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., have publicly opposed getting fiscal 2000 budget savings through the EITC change, making it more difficult for House leaders to convince members to back the proposal without Senate cover.
Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart Tuesday said it would be a "terrible idea" to address the budget shortfall with across-the-board spending cuts.
But he declined to issue a threat to veto the idea. "There's a lot of things in here we can find reason to oppose," he said, noting in particular President Clinton's concern that education not be "underfunded" and indicating opposition to "drastic cuts" in spending on law enforcement, medical research and the environment.
And, he added, the GOP may have to slice out more than it thinks. "If they are honestly committed to not spending the Social Security surplus, with the appropriations bills they've passed now and the proposals on the table, there will not be a 3 percent, across- the-board cut. It's going to be twice as much or three times as much," Lockhart said.
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