WASHINGTON – The House on Wednesday narrowly approved Congress’ first attempt in eight years to slow the growth of benefit programs such as Medicaid and student loan subsidies, sending the measure to President Bush.
The bill passed by a vote of 216-214, largely along party lines. Republicans hailed the five-year, $39 billion budget-cutting bill as an important first step to restoring discipline on spending. Democrats attacked the measure as an assault on college students and Medicaid patients, and said powerful Washington lobbyists had too much influence on it.
The measure is a leftover item from the GOP fall agenda. Bush is eager to sign it into law.
It blends modest cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and student loan subsidies with a renewal of the 1996 welfare reform bill. There’s also a reprieve for physicians who had faced a 4 percent cut in Medicare fees.
The $39 billion in cuts are generally small – a 0.4 percent cut in Medicaid funding and 0.3 percent cut in Medicare over five years – compared with deficits expected to total $1.3 trillion or more through 2010. Still, the bill set off a brawl between Democrats and Republicans and whipped up opposition from interest groups like AARP.
All four House Republicans in Washington and Oregon voted in favor of the bill, while nine of 10 Democrats voted against it.
Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., said Congress has a responsibility to spend taxpayer dollars wisely and efficiently.
“This balanced approach ensures that our most central needs are met, while reducing the deficit so that our children and grandchildren are not left to foot the bill,” Hastings said.
Republicans said the measure is a necessary first step to reining in the burgeoning growth of so-called mandatory spending programs like Medicare, which threaten to swamp the budget as the baby boom generation starts retiring.
Democrats contend the budget cut bill concentrates spending cuts on vulnerable groups such as Medicaid beneficiaries while protecting powerful corporate interests such as drug makers and health insurance companies, which won big victories in end-stage negotiations carried on behind closed doors.
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