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Senior Citizen Politics
House Ignores Bush Medicare, Medicaid Cuts in
Passing Budget Resolution
May 18, 2006 – Completing a complete turn around,
the House of Representatives this morning approved the 2007 budget
resolution without proposals by President Bush to reduce spending for
Medicare, Medicaid and other entitlement programs. Bush, who recommended
cuts of $36 billion for Medicare, said in April he will veto any
bill that does not include these cuts.
 House Approves FY 2007 Budget Resolution Without
Cuts to Medicare, Medicaid
The House early Thursday voted 218-210 to approve
the $2.8 trillion fiscal year 2007 budget resolution after Republican
leaders promised GOP moderates to include an additional $3.1 billion in
funds for health, labor and education programs, CQ Today reports.
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on
Senior Citizen Politics |
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House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) reached
the agreement with Republican moderates without an increase in the $873
billion discretionary spending cap proposed by President Bush.
Under the agreement, at least $1 billion of the
additional funds would come from unspent Iraq reconstruction funds and
about $2 billion would come from unspecified spending reductions to
other programs.
The additional funds would result in a 2% increase
in spending for labor, health and education programs. Bush in his FY
2007 budget
proposal recommended a $4 billion spending reduction for labor,
health and education programs.
Rep. Michael Castle (R-Del.), a leader of the
Republican moderates, said that the additional funds would not result in
spending reductions for Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps or other
programs for low-income individuals (Dennis, CQ Today, 5/18).
The House budget resolution also excludes proposals
by Bush to reduce spending for Medicare, Medicaid and other entitlement
programs (Fagan,
Washington Times, 5/18).
The House rejected an alternative budget resolution
proposed by Democrats that would have increased funding for health care
for veterans, medical research and other programs and would have allowed
hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts to expire (Taylor,
AP/Houston Chronicle, 5/18).
Passage of the budget resolution will allow the
House to begin to address FY 2007 appropriations bills, although "it
remains unlikely that the House and Senate will reach a bicameral deal
on their competing budget plans," CQ Today reports (CQ Today, 5/18).
Reaction
Boehner said that the budget resolution "strengthens our efforts to
control spending and, coupled with a robust economy fueled by tax
relief, is making real progress in driving down the deficit" (AP/Houston
Chronicle, 5/18).
Castle said, "I do support the budget, and sure,
I'd like to have the full loaf now, but I understand we're not there
now." Castle said that Republican moderates would base their votes on
individual appropriations bills on whether the promised additional funds
are included, adding that the funds might come during conference with
the Senate (CQ Today, 5/18).
House Appropriations Committee ranking member David Obey (D-Wis.)
criticized Republican moderates for "selling out for a promise that ...
some time in the deep, dark, distant future ... there might be a table
scrap or two left for additional education or health care" (Cohn,
CongressDaily, 5/18).
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said, "This
budget resolution is a continuation of the most reckless fiscal policies
in the history of our nation, policies that have squandered a $5.6
trillion budget surplus, added more than $3 trillion to the national
debt and weakened our ability to respond to national and international
crises" (AP/Houston Chronicle, 5/18).
House To Consider Health Care Legislation Next
Month
The House Republican leadership is planning to
bring several health care bills to the floor next month in an effort to
"advance the GOP's agenda on health care,"
The Hill reports. Proposals likely to be considered "closely trac[k]
the health care priorities favored by the White House," The Hill
reports.
The House is expected to debate Rep. Nancy
Johnson's (R-Conn.) bill (HR
4157) to advance the use of health care information technology. The
House also is likely to consider a health savings account proposal (HR
5262) sponsored by Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.). The bill would provide
tax incentives to people who purchase high-deductible health insurance,
which is required to have an HSA. The bill also would allow employers
and workers to place more money in HSAs and would offer a tax credit for
low-income beneficiaries to help pay for premiums.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) has introduced a
separate bill that would allow Medicare beneficiaries to use HSAs.
The House also is likely to consider a proposal to
create "master-charge lists" that would state the amounts that
hospitals, doctors and other health care providers charge for medical
services. In addition, the House might consider proposals to limit jury
awards in medical malpractice lawsuits, create multistate association
health plans and reorganize
NIH.
A spokesperson for House Majority Leader John
Boehner (R-Ohio) said committees will decide upon provisions to be
included in the bills as they head to the floor. The Hill reports that
"[n]early all" of the bills will face "staunch Democratic opposition,"
with one possible exception being health care IT legislation (Young, The
Hill, 5/17).
"Reprinted with
permission from kaisernetwork.org You can view the entire
Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, and sign up
for email delivery at
www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser
Daily Health Policy Report is published for
kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family
Foundation. © 2006 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation.
All rights reserved.”
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