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 White
House Cutting $10 Billion in Appropriations for Poverty and Other Programs
While Promoting a $670 Billion Tax Cut
Posted January 18, 2003
thepeoplesvoice.org
By U.S. Newswire
WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 -- Following is a statement by Robert
Greenstein and Richard Kogan of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP):
Cutting $10 Billion in Appropriations for Poverty and Other Programs While
Promoting a $670 Billion Tax Cut: Does This Represent Fiscal Discipline and
Balanced Policy? The omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal year 2003 that
the Senate is now considering contains a series of cuts that would adversely
affect workers hard hit by the economic downturn, low-income elderly and
disabled individuals and low-income children, and states, which are facing
their worst fiscal crisis in 50 years.
The legislation cuts approximately $10 billion from the funding levels the
Senate Appropriations Committee approved, on a unanimous and bipartisan
basis, last summer and fall. This $10 billion cut has been made at the White
House's insistence. The Senate Appropriations Committee was given no choice
but to adhere to the total funding level set by the White House. The White
House has contended these cuts are needed to maintain fiscal discipline and
address budget deficits. In light of the White House's proposed $674 billion
"growth package," the
Administration's rationale is difficult to discern.
-- The Administration argues that its $674
billion package, which includes $670 billion of tax cuts, is needed to shore
up a struggling economy. Yet by the White House's own figures, only $59
billion of the $674 billion would occur in calendar year 2003 and less than
$40 billion would go out the door in fiscal year
2003.
-- Many of the cuts in the omnibus
appropriations bill would take money out of the economy now. For example,
the $349 million cut in the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program would
take $349 million out of the pockets of poor elderly or disabled people and
poor families.
-- Other cuts in the legislation include a
$530 million cut in job training, a $63 million cut in Head Start, and a
$305 million cut in funds to operate and maintain public housing. (These
cuts are compared to fiscal year 2002 levels; the cuts are larger when the
effects of inflation are taken into account.)
-- It is difficult to understand why fiscal
discipline demands shaving $10 billion from fiscal year 2003 appropriations
but permits the more than $630 billion in revenue losses that would occur
after fiscal year 2003 under the Administration's growth package.
-- Despite Administration claims, the $10
billion in funding reductions are not necessary to avoid a "spending
explosion" in domestic appropriations. Funding for domestic programs
outside homeland security would decline as a share of the economy (that is,
of the Gross Domestic Product) in 2003 even if none of the $10 billion in
reductions were made.
At bottom, the issue is one of values and
priorities. Should funds for job training for the unemployed, child care and
education for disadvantaged children, assistance for the poor in paying
winter heating bills, and repairs to public housing be cut back to free up
resources for more tax cuts disproportionately geared to the nation's most
affluent members? The Administration's "growth package" would
provide an average of at least $15 billion per year in tax cuts over the
coming decade to households that make more than $1 million per year -- the
top 0.2 percent of households -- according to estimates based on
calculations by the Brookings-Urban Institute Tax Policy Center.
http://www.usnewswire.com
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