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Democrats Vs. Family Budget
Republicans warn flawed policies will squeeze family budgets while a senior Democratic aide attempts to downplay concerns, saying budget “less worthwhile than we will make it out to be”
March 5, 2008 - Congressional Republicans are warning that Democratic policies could wreck the federal budget while putting the squeeze on the family budgets of millions of Americans. As floor debate nears on a fiscal year 2009 budget, it’s increasingly clear that Democratic legislators will use the budget as a vehicle for spending hikes while failing to address long-term alternative minimum tax (AMT) reform, looming tax hikes for middle-class earners, troop funding, and entitlement reform, to cite just a few issues.
The additional spending added by Democratic policymakers “would push the federal deficit to more than $350 billion in fiscal 2009 … Democrats assume all of President Bush's first-term tax cuts would expire on schedule in 2010, bringing in billions in revenue. But if the most popular tax measures were extended, as the two Democratic presidential candidates have promised, the surplus would all but evaporate, [Senate Budget Committee Chairman] Conrad said” [Lori Montgomery, “Senate Democrats Propose Budget,” Washington Post, 3/5/08].
Democrats seeking to mitigate the public damage caused by a flawed budget that divides their own caucus and raises Republican criticism have attempted to minimize the plan’s importance, saying “the exercise will likely be more political than substantive. ‘It is less worthwhile than we will make it out to be,’ acknowledged a senior Senate Democratic aide” [Steven T. Dennis and Emily Pierce, “Roadmap,” Roll Call, 3/4/08]. But “Republicans already are criticizing Democrats for failing to address the long-term fiscal challenges posed by entitlement programs and for assuming expiration of many of the tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003” [Sarah Lueck, “Senate Democrats Unveil Budget Plans,” Wall Street Journal, 3/5/08].
The Democratic plan barely acknowledges the ongoing concern many middle-class Americans have about the AMT, which was a major issue in 2007 and will continue to be as long as the tax is not reformed. The Democrats' plan contains no long-term solution for the tax problem and only “includes a one-year reduction in the alternative-minimum tax, which without a legislative change would hit millions more people on their 2008 tax returns” [Sarah Lueck, “Senate Democrats Unveil Budget Plans,” Wall Street Journal, 3/5/08].
As Roll Call notes, the tax relief issue is dividing the left: “there will be some fights that even Democrats don’t want to have, and discussion at the leadership level already has begun on whether to allow Democrats to vote for some of the anticipated tax cut proposals that Republicans plan to offer on the Senate floor” [Steven T. Dennis and Emily Pierce, “Democrats’ Budget Hemmed in by Bush, Elections,” Roll Call, 3/4/08]. Beyond tax issues, “Democrats meanwhile will have to tiptoe around splits in their caucus on the Iraq War and on pay-as-you-go rules” [Ibid.].
Procedural concerns may make the budget debate even more problematic for Democratic leadership according to Congressional Quarterly, which noted: “A possible point of tension between House and Senate Democrats is whether to use filibuster protections ... With only a two-vote margin, Senate Democrats cannot afford to lose any votes if they want to pass their budget, and some Democrats have balked at using reconciliation” [David Clarke, “Democrats Tee Up Their Budget Plans,” Congressional Quarterly, 3/4/08].
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