By Mark Fischenich
Difficult decisions on the details are months away, but Democratic Congressman Tim Walz said the budget outline passed by the House Thursday night establishes the right priorities for middle-class tax cuts and investments in education, energy independence and health care reform.
Republican Rep. John Kline offered an opposite opinion, saying the Democratic Congress was laying the groundwork for a budget characterized by tax increases, unrestrained spending and deep deficits while failing to invest in crucial areas such as special education.
Walz, whose district covers most of southern Minnesota, said the deficit spending in the budget resolution was troubling but necessary given the deep economic crisis.
“The only way we’re going to get ourselves out of this situation is by growing our way out of it,” Walz said.
The House bill — and a Senate alternative that was expected to pass late Thursday night or early this morning— reflect President Barack Obama’s budget priorities. The budget frameworks provide tax cuts for the vast majority of working Americans, tax hikes two years from now for wealthier people and more spending for education programs and initiatives to reduce American dependence on fossil fuels and foreign oil.
The budget-setting process will also include attempts to reform the nation’s health care system, although the sticky details of accomplishing that won’t be tackled until later in the year.
“In the appropriations process, the real fight begins,” Walz said.
Republicans fired their opening shots in the contest, and the themes were consistent from the House to the Senate.
“It spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much and does so at the expense of our children and grandchildren,” said Kline in a video statement.
The statement echoed one made about Obama’s budget by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. While Senate Republicans failed to offer an alternative to the plans proposed by Obama and Democrats in the House and Senate, House Republicans issued a proposal that Kline praised.
That plan freezes spending on most programs, resulting in lower projected deficits. It also would have eliminated the current government-run Medicare program for people under the age of 55 — replacing it with a system of private insurance.
Kline, whose district includes Le Sueur County along with the south metro, praised the GOP alternative as one that “curbs spending, creates jobs, cuts taxes and controls debt at the time Americans need it most.”
Walz described the Republican Medicare program as “basically ‘cross your fingers and hope you don’t get sick.’” And while he said the projected deficits under the various plans are a concern, slashing spending during an economic recession has been proven by history to be counterproductive.
The Mankato Democrat said Republicans expanded deficit spending when in control of the federal government earlier this decade and proved that tax cuts for the wealthy coupled with financial deregulation don’t spur sustainable economic growth.
“That has proven to be a very bad recipe and one that this (budget) starts to turn around,” he said.
First, though, Congress and Obama will have to settle on specific spending and policy provisions in a series of 13 appropriations bills — a process that is supposed to be done by Oct. 1 but often lasts weeks or months beyond the deadline.
“We’ll see how that battle goes,” Walz said.
