By Andrew Taylor

A $2.8 trillion Republican budget plan approved by a conservative-dominated House panel faces a worrisome hurdle for GOP leaders plotting a floor debate for next week.

A rift between Republican conservatives eager to crack down on agency budgets and party moderates determined to reverse cuts to education and other popular programs could delay floor debate. Republican unity is essential to passing the plan, since none of the House’s Democrats are expected to back it.

“I would say there is a challenge there,” said conservative Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas.

The Budget Committee approved the GOP plan, written by Chairman Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, by a party line 22-17 vote late Wednesday. Bowing to election-year realities, Nussle dropped President Bush’s proposed cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, crop subsidies and other politically sensitive programs but preserved his plan to trim spending by most Cabinet agencies.

The plan, for the 2007 budget year beginning Oct. 1, adopts Bush’s $873 billion cap on agency budgets renewed by Congress each year. But it also assumes just $50 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, less than one-half of expected spending for the current year.

The plan endorses Bush’s call for a 7 percent increase in the core defense budget - which doesn’t include Iraq war costs - for next year. That increase comes at the expense of domestic programs like education, health research and grants to local governments and relief agencies.

The plan also assumes $226 billion in additional tax cuts over five years, more than half of which would go for extending Bush’s 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, most of which are set to expire in 2010. But the committee didn’t take the necessary steps under Congress’ arcane budget process to facilitate speedy action on a tax bill.

Nussle credited earlier tax cuts with reviving an economy that was in recession when Bush took office.

“As a result of giving Americans more control over their money, we’ve seen more investment, more jobs and greater opportunities in this country,” Nussle said.

Democrats blasted the Republican blueprint, which would produce a deficit of $348 billion in 2007 and deficits totaling more than $1 trillion through 2011 if Congress enacts its policies.

And they doubted it would even meet these deficit goals, since it doesn’t account for the costs of the war in Iraq after 2007 or for shielding middle- to upper-income taxpayers from being hit by the alternative minimum tax.

Rep. John Spratt Jr., D-S.C., said the national debt would almost double to more than $9 trillion under Bush’s tenure in office, a natural result “from a fiscal policy that says you can have guns, butter, tax cuts too and never mind the deficit. … It holds no real plan or prospect of balancing the budget.”

Link

There seems to be a very active split in the GOP when it comes to the budget. I for one am tired of liberal Republicans being generous when it comes to pork-filled legislation or overspending for entitlement programs we don’t really need. In fact, there is no reason why the United States budget should even reach some $2.8 trillion dollars.

If America is to have continued prosperity over the next few decades, there must be fiscal restraint in Washington. While the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 helped to get the economy rolling again after the Clinton recession, the government must match the commitment to tax cutting with the commitment to cut government spending to balance out the budget. This only makes sense, as it is the fiscally conservative thing to do, not to mention millions of families must live their lives in this manner.

Americans must realize that a ballooning debt ceiling and budget deficits could produce an anxiety in world markets, cutting back foreign investment and the purchasing of treasury bonds, which is so vital to the economic well-being of the United States.