Senate Budget Committee Critiques President's Budget Proposal

In a heated exchange, the Senate Budget Committee heard testimony from OMB director Jim Nussle regarding President Bush’s FY2009 Budget Proposal. Chariman Kent Conrad (D-ND) opened the hearing with a poster reading “the debt is the threat” and continued this theme, saying the “debt is going up like a scalded cat,” described the three D’s of President Bush’s legacy as “debt, deficit, and decline,” and called the budget “a debt bomb on the next president.” He made sure to emphasize the difference between the deficit, which is the year-to-year difference between spending and revenue, and the debt, which includes all money owed to Social Security and other lenders.

The consensus was apparent that this budget is unrealistic on a number of levels. A number of social programs would face spending cuts of up to 100%, the DOD would receive less than half of the $193 billion it spent this year in Iraq and Afghanistan.

While each side of the aisle presented different complaints, they were united in opposition to the projected economic outlook if this plan is put into action. The $9 trillion debt is expected to reach $10 trillion; if the stimulus package is enacted, the 2008 deficit is expected to reach $400 billion. Ranking member Judd Gregg (R-NH) criticized the Democrats regarding Pay-Go rules and SCHIP, but gave Nussle the same treatment, criticizing the long-run usefulness of this plan.

Chairman Conrad and Senator Bernard Sanders (I-VT) were some of the most vocal and aggressive when demanding justifications for unrealistically low war spending estimates ($70 billion for 2009) and severe cuts to social programs like LIHEAP which helps low-income families heat their homes. Nussle responded with a question, asking when Congress would pay the war bills for this year.

Medicare and Medicaid was also a topic of long discussion. Nussle claimed the budget aims to limit uncontrolled growth in spending in these areas. The Committee discussed the need for reform in these areas, rather than simple spending cuts.

Senator Lautenberg (D-NJ) focused on the cuts that Amtrak would receive under the President’s plan, remarking on traffic problems across the country.

Senator Menedez (D-NJ) seemed to sum it all up when he declared the proposal “dead on arrival.”