Divided House panel approves steep domestic spending cuts

If federal budgets are reflective of partisan priorities, a resolution approved early Thursday morning by the House Budget committee came as close as any to mirroring the sharp divisions between Congress' majority Republicans and Democrats.

Republicans want another round of significant tax cuts, essentially the package proposed by President Bush. Democrats say more tax cuts at a time when the country is facing war in the Mid East and huge homeland security cost is, as one put it, "fiscal folly."

The House committee's resolution, crafted by Chairman Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, calls for a 1 percent cut in a wide array of domestic programs. The Democrats were adamantly opposed and launched a barrage of amendments to spare such programs.

A furious fight in the cramped committee room erupted, ranging deep into the night, as Republicans rebuffed every opposition bid to reshape their resolution. Budget resolutions set spending limits for each major government department and set dollar parameters for any changes in tax rates.

Under the GOP's plan, which finally passed at 1:30 a.m. on a 24-19 party line vote and is expected to go to the House floor next week, President Bush's request for $729 billion worth of new tax cuts would be mostly accommodated.

In addition, the resolution:

• Calls for a balanced budget in seven years.
• Boosts spending for defense by $15 billion in fiscal 2004 for a total of $400.
• Provides $41 billion for homeland security next year. Included in that would be $890 million for new vaccines against smallpox, anthrax and botulinum toxin and another $803 million for research to detect and respond, to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats or attacks. Also included in the homeland protection section would be $3.5 billion to train and supply local police and firefighters in case of terrorist attacks; $4.8 billion for airport security, and $1.7 billion to tighten U.S. borders against terrorist infiltrators.
• Adds a 10-year $400 billion Medicare prescription drug benefit for seniors.

In the course of the 14-hour markup session, the committee took up and disposed of more than 40 amendments, voting in every case but one along party lines. The panel reported the resolution at 1:30 a.m. on a 24-19 party-line vote.

The stark differences between the two parties centered almost exclusively on the Democrats' abortive efforts to take money from the tax cuts and shift them over to finance increases in a broad range of domestic programs that they claimed were insufficiently funded. They offered amendments to do this on environmental, educational, healthcare, agriculture, Medicare, Medicaid, scientific research, defense and homeland security programs. In virtually every case, the basic choices in the voting came down to selecting between keeping the president's tax cuts or spending more for domestic purposes.