The conservative National Review has a problem with the way the republicans showcased their alternate budget proposal. I agree...they need to get serious, soon. Obama has total control of the story. There is no loyal opposition at this point. Hard choices have to be made and a solid case for making them needs to be rolled out next week.
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A Summary of the Republicans' Buget [David Freddoso]
House Republicans are presenting their alternative budget in a few minutes. As we await the details, here is a summary, based on the materials they have distributed in advance. One problem is that there is no scoring yet for the bottom line yet. The other is that there is zero chance this budget will pass. But it is still vital that they present it — President Obama challenged them to do so, and surely there is an alternative to a $23 trillion debt by 2019.
How do Republicans propose to control future deficits? First, they would end a litany of controversial programs of doubtful value to the public:
International organizations and foreign aid recipients, including millions for reconstruction in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Labor union bosses participating in a new “green jobs” program. The National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Americorps, Title X Family Planning, and a host of spending programs that will do nothing to help our economy recover. And even community organizers, such as ACORN, performing “neighborhood stabilization.” Hundreds of programs deemed ineffective by prior Administrations...
That's the easy part. Unfortunately, these programs, no matter how unworthy, barely scratch the surface when it comes to saving money. There is a lot more money to be found in undoing a large part of what has been done this year:
Republicans propose to undo the recent reckless and wasteful Democrat spending binge included in the so-called “stimulus” and omnibus bills.
What does this mean? For one thing, as Minority Leader John Boehner (R) said in a conference call yesterday, it would replace the $410 billion omnibus bill with a spending freeze for the rest of fiscal 2009. That takes care of normal appropriations and saves about $30 billion. As for the stimulus package, it is less clear how much of the roughly $250 billion in refundable tax-credits and the $500 billion in direct spending would disappear — probably about half, along the lines of the GOP alternative that was proposed at the time.
The Republican budget also "refuses to assume" additional spending for bailouts, proposing instead an industry-financed FDIC-type program for saving failing financial institutions. It privatizes Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac gradually, just as Sallie Mae was privatized over seven years beginning in the late 1990s.
Another major area of savings in the GOP budget comes in the area of health care. Instead of making a $1 trillion down-payment for a system with far more vigorous government involvement, they apppear to be pursuing several market-based solutions they have proposed in the past few years: a tax-deduction (or credit) for health insurance, the Shaddegg bill (allows one to buy insurance across state lines), and tort reform for medical malpractice. The first two items would decrease insurance prices and broaden coverage. The third would help contain medical costs.
Another cost-cutting measure for government health care anticipates Medicaid reforms on the state level. At the urging of Gov. Don Carcieri (R), Rhode Island recently agreed to an experimental arrangement in which it will take a smaller Medicaid reimbursement from the federal government in exchange for greater flexibility in how the money is spent. That bipartisan plan's success or failure could shape the way Medicaid is treated in the future.
On the revenue side, the Republican budget is very ambitious in cutting taxes and reforming the tax system. It includes a simpler alternative tax code, an idea proposed in the past as a bill by Rep. Paul Ryan (R). It makes the lower 2001 and 2003 tax rates permanent and additionally cuts the rates for the lowest two brackets of the existing tax code. It scraps President Obama's cap-and-trade energy tax. On the plus side, it anticipates revenues and economic growth from offshore drilling.
We'll know more this afternoon.
Update: In fact, we don't know anything more. I was not the only reporter in the room during the delayed press conference who had expected to see some numbers, at least ballpark. Today's press conference did not provide further details.
We'll find out what the Republicans' numbers are sometime next week before they receive a vote.
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