They typically call reductions in spending growth "cuts." That's SOP. It's really hard to know what they're talking about but I think that reductions in growth has become the default. Usually news articles aren't too particular about their language. I haven't followed this particular bill at all so I just Googled to find something that expressed reductions in the rate of spending growth. This was the first article Google came up with that expressed it in those terms. Look at the headline and then look at the bolded piece.
Bush wins deep cuts in benefit spending
By Richard Simon and Joel Havemann
Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON – The House on Wednesday approved and sent to the White House a far-reaching bill that will trim the growth of federal benefit programs by more than $39 billion in the next five years – Congress’ first major budget-cutting exercise in almost a decade.
The measure squeaked through the Republican-led House by a 216-214 vote and without a single Democrat in favor. The Senate had passed the legislation shortly before Christmas, also with no Democratic support, when Vice President Cheney broke a 50-50 tie.
President Bush issued a statement praising the House vote and adding, “I look forward to signing this bill into law.” The 2007 budget he will submit to Congress on Monday, Bush said, “will continue to build on the spending restraint we have achieved.”
As much as the measure’s passage was welcomed by Bush, it was perhaps sweeter yet for House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., whose hopes of succeeding former Majority Leader Tom DeLay could have been derailed if he had failed to corral the necessary votes. The leadership vote takes place Thursday.
Among its many provisions, the bill will charge higher interest rates on student loans, reduce federal aid to force absent parents to pay child support and impose stricter work requirements on welfare recipients.
Republican leaders have portrayed the bill as a critical part of their drive to reduce the federal budget deficit. Indiana Rep. Mike Pence, R-6th, a leader of House conservatives, called the measure “an important first step toward restoring public confidence in the fiscal integrity of our national government.”
Yet measured against the budget as a whole, the spending cuts seem mild. Heritage Foundation budget expert Brian Riedl said they would reduce total growth in federal benefit programs over the next five years from 39 percent to 38 percent. And even as the House was passing the spending-cut bill, the Senate was debating a $56 billion tax cut that the House had already passed – a combination that would add $16 billion to federal deficits.
Democrats condemned budget cuts that focused on programs to benefit the poor even as Republicans planned more tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the wealthy.
“This isn’t about small government,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “This is about small-minded, petty government that does not meet the needs of the American people.”
Upon Bush’s signature, the legislation will reauthorize and revamp the welfare law that Congress enacted in 1996 but that expired in 2002. Since then, Congress has extended the program, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, with a series of short-term reauthorizations.
States will face reductions in federal welfare grants if they cannot meet strict new requirements for moving their welfare recipients into jobs or activities such as job training.
The bill’s Medicaid provisions spell bad news for many of the program’s low-income recipients but good news for health insurers and drug companies. The bill could mean that beneficiaries with incomes just above the poverty line will have to pay far more than the current $3 co-payment for many medical services. It will tighten restrictions on elderly persons who transfer assets to family members to qualify for Medicaid.
Senate-passed provisions to force insurance companies and drug manufacturers to absorb some of the cuts were dropped by the House-Senate conference committee that wrote the final bill.
The deepest cuts – $12.7 billion over five years – were exacted on the government’s student loan programs.
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