Democrats Bow To Bush's Demand in House Spending Bill

Billions Trimmed From New Requests

The Washington Post reports:

House Democratic leaders yesterday agreed to meet President Bush's bottom-line spending limit on a sprawling, half-trillion-dollar domestic spending bill, dropping their demands for as much as $22 billion in additional spending but vowing to shift funds from the president's priorities to theirs.

The final legislation, still under negotiation, will be shorn of funding for the war in Iraq when it reaches the House floor, possibly on Friday. But Democratic leadership aides concede that the Senate will probably add those funds. A proposal to strip the bill of spending provisions for lawmakers' home districts was shelved after a bipartisan revolt, but Democrats say the number and size of those earmarks will be scaled back.

When defense spending is added to the total, discretionary spending for fiscal 2008 would reach a tentative total of $936.5 billion, $3.7 billion more than the president's request, said House Appropriations Committee staff members. All of the additional money would be spent on veterans affairs.

The agreement signaled that congressional Democrats are ready to give in to many of the White House's demands as they try to finish the session before they break for Christmas -- a political victory for the president, who has refused to compromise on the spending measures.

The House last night also approved a new version of legislation that would stave off the spread of the alternative minimum tax, a parallel tax system originally targeted at the very rich, to millions of middle-class families. The House version would not add to the federal budget deficit.

The progress yesterday on Capitol Hill did not mean that lawmakers will be rushing to the exits in the next few days. The AMT bill, which was approved 226 to 193, pays for the $50 billion tax fix largely by preventing hedge fund managers from deferring compensation by shifting their pay to offshore tax shelters. The White House issued a fresh veto threat, reiterating Bush's opposition to any tax increases to pay for an AMT fix.

The threat virtually ensured that the Senate will not muster the 60 votes needed to break a threatened Republican filibuster. It moved Congress further toward shattering a Democratic pledge not to pass tax cuts that are not fully offset by tax increases or spending reductions.

Senate Democratic leaders, backed by key Republicans, finalized a new version of a comprehensive energy bill. It would raise automotive fuel-efficiency standards and preserve a package of conservation and renewable-energy tax incentives, to be funded largely by revoking tax breaks given to the largest oil companies in recent years.

The Senate is to vote today on the revised energy bill, and senators from both parties said proponents are close to reaching the 60-vote threshold. Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) summoned from the campaign trail the five senators seeking the presidential nomination for this morning's vote.

The new version of the bill meets a key White House demand by stripping out a requirement that utilities move toward generating 15 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources. It also pares back tax increases on oil companies by exempting independent energy companies from a provision that would end a manufacturer's tax credit awarded in 2005.

But the White House is also threatening to veto that legislation. "It seems that Senator Reid wants to keep the tax title in there, which the president has been very clear that he won't sign," White House spokesman Dana Perino said.

Bush may also veto the spending package, even though Democrats shaved $22 billion from federal domestic programs to meet his demands, said Rep. Jerry Lewis (Calif.), the ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee. He added, "And I think we'll have enough Republicans to sustain a veto."

White House spokesman Tony Fratto emphasized last night, "The White House is not part of any deal, full stop."

The veto threats in the face of Democratic compromises left party lawmakers in disbelief. Because of Bush's intransigence, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said that "we're going to have some horrific decisions to make over the next week."

Democratic leaders tried to put the best face on their surrender on domestic spending levels, promising that the final bill will reflect their priorities, if not their preferred funding -- "the president's number, our priorities," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). She noted that the bill would increase funding for children's health programs, nutrition and medical research at the National Institutes of Health.

Democrats will also increase spending on heating assistance for the poor, health care for veterans, local law enforcement and border security, Democratic leadership aides said last night.

To meet those goals, staff members on the House Appropriations Committee will probably target the president's "Millennium Challenge" international aid program, his abstinence-education efforts and the scandal-plagued "Reading First" education effort.

Senate Republicans will seek to add as much as $70 billion in war funding to the bill, without strings on the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq attached. Pelosi indicated she would vote against the final bill if such funds are included but made clear that Democrats are ready to make the concessions needed to avoid a veto.

"This is a negotiation about a bill that will be signed by the president," she said.

The retooled version of the energy bill still includes higher standards for motor vehicle and appliance efficiency, as well as a requirement for vastly expanded use of ethanol and other biofuels. The tax package would offset expanded energy conservation incentives by trimming tax breaks and depreciation allowances for the biggest oil firms.

The House AMT bill would prevent 21 million middle-income American households from being hit with a tax increase that could average $2,000 per family from a levy designed in 1969 to target only the super-rich. The proposal would also increase the number of low-income families that could benefit from a refundable tax credit for children.

The plan's outlook in the Senate is not good. The ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Jim McCrery (La.), called it "dead on arrival."

"What we are watching is a Kabuki dance," he said. "The Senate made it clear, with a bipartisan 88 to 5 vote last Thursday, that it will pass an AMT patch without unnecessary tax increases." Bush also opposes the House measure.

War Brings Death and No Taxes

American citizens have yet to pay for the war against terrorism in the Middle East.

From the Minnesotan Daily:

Last week White House press secretary Dana Perino rejected the idea of an Iraq war tax, which was proposed by House Appropriations Chairman Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.). Said Perino: "We've always known that Democrats seem to revert to type, and they are willing to raise taxes on just about anything." Yet, President George W. Bush and his administration have disregarded the Republican type of fiscal responsibility for this current war.

By the end of this year, Congress estimates the total funds appropriated for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will be nearly $600 billion. A 2006 Harvard and Columbia University study estimated the eventual cost of the wars at $2 trillion. Much of the money spent has not been paid for or accounted into the U.S. deficit because war funding has been provided through emergency supplemental bills. These bills, which have been used to finance wars since the Korean War, allow the U.S. government to wage war without an immediate economic impact on the American people. As a result, a war may be fought without any sacrifice from the citizen - only the soldier.

As the Iraq war drags on, taxes have not been raised, but instead continually cut by the Bush administration and the complacent past Republican majority in Congress. A country cannot sustain itself - properly pay for scientific research, infrastructure maintenance, education development, national security, etc. - when taxes are not raised to supplement the additional costs of war. The Bush administration is the first to cut taxes during wartime in over 200 years. Therefore the cost of the Iraq war will not be paid by the men and women of President Bush's generation. The bill will instead come due for their children's generation.

Perino continued, saying a war tax was "completely fiscally irresponsible."Alan Greenspan, the personification of fiscal conservatism, recently told the Wall Street Journal, "The Republican Party, which ruled the House, the Senate and the presidency, I no longer recognize."

It is the Bush administration that is completely fiscally irresponsible. Its decisions have led to not only the countless deaths of Americans and Iraqis, but will also lead to financial hardships this country has yet to experience.

House Panel Approves Pet Projects

The AP reports:

The House Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved $153 million in pet projects, rewarding both powerful and not-so-powerful lawmakers alike with 377 cherished "earmarks" for their home districts.

The unusual session was made necessary after Republicans forced Democrats to reverse plans to insert pet projects into bills before House debates rather than add them in closed-door House-Senate talks when it would be too late to challenge them.

Of more pressing importance to lawmakers, however, is that Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., have issued an edict cutting the amount of money devoted to earmarks in half. Obey denied all earmarks when passing a wrap-up spending bill earlier this year.

"Many members will be disappointed," said Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., chairman of a panel responsible for local clean water and sewer grants and national parks projects.

Republicans are especially feeling the pinch. Now that they're in the minority, they only get about 40 percent of the money for projects rather than the 60 percent they enjoyed when controlling Congress. The fact that earmarks are being cut in half doubles the pinch.

Seven-term GOP Rep. Zach Wamp's requests for Environmental Protection Agency water and sewer grants in Tennessee were not granted, though Democrats heeded calls for freshmen lawmakers facing potentially difficult re-election campaigns.

For example, Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., obtained $500,000 for South Bend's sewer systems and homestate colleague Brad Ellsworth won an equal amount for Evansville. Jason Altmire and Christopher Carney, freshman Democrats from Pennsylvania, also won projects.

New rules require the sponsors of earmarks to be identified and certify that they don't have a financial interest in them.

By long-standing tradition, senior lawmakers and members of the Appropriations Committee get more for their districts than rank and file lawmakers. With the explosion of earmarks under GOP control of Congress, however, more and more earmarks went out to the rank and file as a means of rewarding loyalty to GOP leaders and cementing the political standing of lawmakers back home.

Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., chairman of a panel responsible for Small Business Administration grants, resisted the temptation to grab more than his share, instead awarding $231,000 to each of more than 100 Democrats winning earmarks, including himself.

In the bill funding EPA and Forest Service projects, Speaker Pelosi obtained $700,000 for a grant for San Francisco for use in the Lower Mission District while Obey obtained $2 million for a biomass-to-ethanol demonstration project.

Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., won $129,000 for the Home of the Perfect Christmas Tree Project, an economic development initiative in economically distressed Mitchell County. The money would double retail space available for a gift shop selling products — typically made by former factory workers whose plants have been shuttered — such as Christmas tree ornaments, handmade soaps and pottery.

McHenry is a vocal conservative and burr in the side of Democrats running the House. He's not popular with some Republicans; a senior GOP member of the Appropriations Committee pointed McHenry's earmark out to reporters, calling it "interesting."

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., has promised a substantial reduction in earmarks, but the free-spending Senate won't go as far as the House as to cut them in half.

The Senate panel Thursday approved three bills funding budget increases for health, medical research and the National Parks system.

The bills were a $27.2 billion Senate version of the EPA and Interior Department measure, a $152 billion bill funding education, labor and health funding measure, and Congress' own budget bill.

The health and education funding measure, the largest domestic funding bill, has been a favorite target of President Bush, whose budget is seeking cuts of more than $4 billion from current levels.

The committee instead added more than $10 billion to Bush's request.