WASHINGTON – Republican congressional leaders agreed to trim deficits by $41.6 billion and sought to unlock the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling Sunday in a frenzied year-end bid to enact the core of a conservative agenda.
“We’re going to move the nation’s business” through Congress, vowed Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.
But Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid accused the GOP of breaking Senate rules to suit their purposes, and threatened to slow action to a crawl. “The arrogance of power of the Republicans … is beyond my ability to comprehend,” he said.
Medicare, the student loan program and Medicaid, which provides health care for the poor, would be tapped for savings under the emerging five-year deficit-cutting plan.
House Republican leaders said they would call for a vote swiftly, but lawmakers haggled over the details for hours. In one last-minute change, the leadership agreed to continue an expiring aid program for dairy farmers at a cost one official put at $14 million.
Passage would clear the way for a Senate vote as early as today.
GOP leaders hoped the ANWR drilling legislation would be close behind. But it faced a rockier course: a threatened filibuster in the Senate that can only be broken with a 60-vote majority.
Democratic critics attacked the bill’s chief advocate, Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, for adding the oil provision to legislation providing $453 billion for the Pentagon. They also accused him of offering enticements to skeptical senators in the form of funds for hurricane relief and other programs.
“Isn’t that what the game really is here?” said Rep. David Obey, D-Wis. He said Stevens was “trying to make Gulf Coast states an offer they can’t refuse.”
“That’s not the point,” replied the Alaska Republican, who said expanding domestic production of oil is a matter of national security.
Conservatives hailed the deficit-cutting measure as the first attempt in a decade to rein in the cost of federal benefit programs, which customarily expand from year to year based on the eligible population.
Preliminary figures put the savings from Medicare at $8.3 billion over the next five years, and planned spending on Medicaid was estimated to fall by nearly $5 billion.
According to a preliminary draft of the agreement, wealthier beneficiaries would be required to pay higher premiums under Part B, which covers doctor services.
Officials said the changes to Medicaid include an attempt to make it harder for the elderly to transfer their assets to children or others in order to qualify for federal nursing home benefits.
The largest savings from the student loan program would involve establishment of a fixed interest rate on loans.
Another provision of the legislation would raise the per-employee premium that companies pay into the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.
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