Jubilant House Republicans took a long step toward their promise of a balanced budget and a fundamental restructuring of the federal government Thursday, passing a seven-year, $1.3 trillion budget resolution.
In a 238-193 vote, eight Democrats joined 230 Republicans in supporting the bill. Rep. Michael Flanagan of Chicago was the only Republican to vote against the measure, which calls for $355 billion in tax cuts and $283 billion in Medicare savings.
Republicans hailed the effort as revolutionary and basked in the high-powered rhetoric of the plan’s author, Rep. John Kasich (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Budget Committee.
“What our vision is for the 21st Century is a vision of taking power and money and control and influence from this city and giving it back to men and women all across this country,” Kasich told the House.
Having taken control of both houses of Congress just five months ago, Republicans view their budget plans and their “Contract with America” as necessary steps in reducing the size and influence of the federal government.
Over two days of debate, Democrats savaged the House plan as “Robin Hood in reverse,” funding a tax-cut plan for wealthier Americans by drawing savings from Medicare and Medicaid, education and environmental programs, changes in funding for college loans and child-care and nutrition programs.
They insist the Republican approach to Medicare-to halve the rate of growth from 10 percent to about 5 percent-will cost seniors more money and reduce the quality of health care, charges the Republicans bitterly denied.
“The value of my party is that we must invest in the people for the things they cannot do for themselves,” said Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.), the House minority leader. “Republicans are again trying to take money from middle-income people and redistribute it to people at the top.”
In a statement Thursday, President Clinton dismissed the GOP plan, saying, “It slashes Medicare to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy, reduces crucial investments in education and raises taxes on working people.”
House Speaker Newt Gingrich again chided Clinton for not offering an alternative balanced budget plan but acknowledged that filling in the blanks of the broad House budget resolution would provide a considerable challenge.
“This is the beginning of six months of hard work,” Gingrich said. He noted that the House bill must be reconciled this summer with the Senate version, with the specific cuts in taxes and programs hammered out in the committee process.
The budget resolution passed by the House on Thursday is non-binding but represents a broad outline of spending limits that would not take effect until the specific amounts are appropriated by budget committees in both chambers. The political battle over the GOP budget plans will intensify during the appropriations process later this summer.
“We have to turn this plan into reality,” Gingrich said, “but I believe we will in fact take the American people to a balanced budget (plan) this year.”
In the Senate, where formal debate on companion legislation began Thursday, Republicans disagree on taxes.
The Senate plan, which is likely to come to a vote next Wednesday, calls for $961 billion in deficit reduction cuts with no tax cuts. And for the moment, the push by some members for a Senate tax-cut plan to match the House version is being held off by Sens. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), chairman of the Budget Committee, and Bob Packwood (R-Ore.), head of the Finance Committee.
But Domenici has left the door open for a $170 billion tax-reduction plan, although it would come late in the seven-year life of the plan.
Meanwhile, Packwood finds himself again embroiled in charges that he made unwelcome sexual advances to a number of women and solicited job offers for his estranged wife, Georgie, from Washington lobbyists. The Senate Ethics Committee has announced public hearings into those allegations, and Packwood may find it difficult to withstand the pressure of colleagues who may ultimately sit in judgment of him.
Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas), a presidential aspirant, is determined to make sweeping tax cuts a part of the Senate plan and has challenged Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole to support those cuts.
This week Dole indicated a willingness to include tax cuts, although he has not endorsed Gramm’s amendment.
In the House Thursday, a trio of budget alternatives, two of them offered by Democrats, were rejected before the leadership’s plan was passed.
A budget put forward by conservative Democrats was defeated 325-100, while the seven-year spending alternative offered by the Congressional Black Caucus was rejected by a wide margin.
A GOP plan authored by freshman Rep. Mark Neumann of Wisconsin, and designed to put the budget in balance in five years rather than seven through deeper cuts in discretionary spending, was turned back with fewer than 100 votes.
The plan passed Thursday would cut federal spending by about $1.3 trillion by 2002.
It would slow the rate of growth in Medicare, with Republicans claiming savings of $283 billion, and offer $355 billion in tax reduction, much of it through a capital gains tax cut and a $500-per-child tax credit.
The Kasich plan would transform Medicaid and a host of social programs into block grants, with increased responsibility given to the states. And it would require $192 billion in savings from discretionary spending, closing three Cabinet-level departments and shutting down more than 300 programs and agencies.
HOW MIDWEST LAWMAKERS VOTED
Here is how the Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin delegations voted in the 238-193 roll call Thursday by which the House approved a budget resolution calling for a balanced budget by 2002.
A “yes” vote is a vote to support the resolution.
Illinois
DEMOCRATS voting yes: None.
DEMOCRATS voting no: Jerry Costello; Richard Durbin; Lane Evans; Luis Gutierrez; William Lipinski; Glenn Poshard; Mel Reynolds; Bobby Rush; Sidney Yates.
DEMOCRAT not voting: Cardiss Collins.
REPUBLICANS voting yes: Philip Crane; Thomas Ewing; Harris Fawell; Dennis Hastert; Henry Hyde; Ray LaHood; Donald Manzullo; John Porter; Gerald Weller.
REPUBLICAN voting no: Michael Flanagan.
Indiana
DEMOCRATS voting yes: None.
DEMOCRATS voting no: Lee Hamilton; Andrew Jacobs Jr.; Tim Roemer; Peter Visclosky.
REPUBLICANS voting yes: Dan Burton; Steve Buyer; John Hostettler; David McIntosh; John Myers; Mark Edward Souder.
REPUBLICANS voting no: None.
Michigan
DEMOCRATS voting yes: None.
DEMOCRATS voting no: James Barcia; David Bonior; Barbara-Rose Collins; John Conyers; John Dingell; Dale Kildee; Sander Levin; Lynn Nancy Rivers; Bart Stupak.
REPUBLICANS voting yes: Dave Camp; Dick Chrysler; Vernon Ehlers; Peter Hoekstra; Joe Knollenberg; Nick Smith; Fred Upton.
REPUBLICANS voting no: None.
Wisconsin
DEMOCRATS voting yes: None.
DEMOCRATS voting no: Thomas Barrett; David Obey.
DEMOCRAT not voting: Gerald Kleczka.
REPUBLICANS voting yes: Steve Gunderson; Scott Klug; Mark Neumann; Tom Petri; Toby Roth; F. James Sensenbrenner.
REPUBLICANS voting no: None.
