The Political Chase

House Budget Reductions and Senate Tax Cuts

Unbelievable.

This morning the House approved a deficit-reduction bill that will cut about 220,000 people off food stamps, allow states to impose new costs on Medicaid beneficiaries, squeeze student lenders, cut aid to state child-support enforcement programs and trim farm supports.

The bill passed 217 to 215, with 14 Republicans joining all House Democrats opposing the bill.

Specifically, the reductions are:

• Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance Program – $11.4 billion
• Student loans – $14.3 billion
• Child support enforcement – $4.9 billion
• Food stamps – $800 million
• Farm and conservation programs – $1.8 billion
• Made no provision for MILC dairy subsidies extension
• Distribution of trade duties to US producers – $3.2 billion
• Pension insurance – $6.2 billion
• Revenue from electromagnetic spectrum auctions – $8.7 billion

I do not understand what the electromagnetic spectrum auctions are, but it was revenue or some type of credit. Who can explain that?

Look at the cuts and see who it is going to effect; those that need it the most. Nothing was done to eliminate the deep cuts to the tax rates on capital gains and dividends that passed in 2003.

Of the 14 Republicans that joined the Democrats in oppositon to the bill, I only have the names of 7. Kudos to these Representatives and the 7 I do not have listed.

Rep. Bill Thomas (R-CA)
Rep. Nancy L. Johnson (R-CT)
Rep. Rob Simmons (R-CT)
Rep. Thomsas M. Davis III (R-VA)
Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest (R-MD)
Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-VA)
Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett (R-MD)

Meanwhile, over in the Senate this morning, a $60 billion dollar tax-cutting package was passed by a vote of 64 to 33. I don’t know what type of cuts were included in the bill or who the 11 Democrats are that crossed the aisle. It doesn’t matter what type of tax-cut bill it was – it’s an additional loss of revenue, period.

Let’s do the math:  60 – 50 = 10. Hard to figure that one out isn’t it? The Senate’s tax-cut more than pays for the budget cuts approved by the house.

I would like to have the names of the 11 Democrats that voted for the tax-cut package. If you know who the 11 Democrats are, please send them to TPC..  If you don’t know how the Senators from your state voted, I would appreciate it if you would find out and pass that information along.  We need to who they are and understand why they voted for yet another tax cut.

If your Senator(s) is a Democrat and voted for the bill, ask them why. Call their office. We’ll post the responses for each Democrat here or gladly link to your site.

The US is hemorhagging with deficits; the number of people falling off unemployment eligibilty increases (falsely making employment numbers look better); Halliburton overbills us by hundreds of millions of dollars; we’re throwing 150,000+ Gulf Coast evacuees out in the street in less than two weeks because FEMA ran out of money and now Congress wants to add more to that abundance of lunacy.

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