Rahall Statement on Republican FY 2012 Budget Blueprint
APR 5, 2011
Washington, D.C.– U.S. Representative Nick J. Rahall (D-WV), top Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, today released the following statement after House Republicans released their budget blueprint for Fiscal Year 2012, which proposes to cut $318 billion in federal transportation investments from current levels over the next decade, including cuts of more than $150 billion of contract authority for highway, highway safety, transit, and airport construction investments. Compared with the President’s budget, the Republican budget would cut $633 billion from transportation investments:
“I stand side-by-side with my Republican colleagues who believe it is of the utmost importance that Congress continues to take aggressive steps to reduce the federal deficit so that our children and grandchildren aren’t paralyzed by our Nation’s crippling debt. Washington must learn how to live within its means, take responsibility for our deficits, and put us on a path to pay for what we spend.
“Instead of making targeted cuts to root out waste and increase efficiency, however, Republicans are acting like Civil War surgeons by hacking off limbs instead of diagnosing the disease.
“The extreme and dangerous cuts to transportation investments that make America a better place to do business could threaten our Nation’s economic competitiveness and will destroy American jobs. The old, tired, and stale slash and burn approach to transportation investments in the Republican budget blueprint would drive our economy off the road to recovery and back into the ditch. Instead of a superhighway into the future, the Republican “Path to Prosperity” will only lead us backwards down a bumpy dirt road into the past.
“We can boost competitiveness and trim the budget, but both will require concerted thought, backbone, and a willingness to compromise and reach a consensus. The Republican underinvestment strategy might appeal to the far right of the Republican Party, but it is not the right choice for America’s middle class and our future.”
17 Democratic Governors Launch Preemptive Strike Against Paul Ryan's Medicaid Proposal
First Posted: 04/ 4/11 05:49 PM ET Updated: 04/ 4/11 05:49 PM ET
WASHINGTON -- Seventeen Democratic governors have signed and sent a letter to congressional leaders stating their firm opposition to a Medicaid reform proposal championed by House Republicans.
The letter, sent on Monday, is a preemptive strike of sorts against House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) before he unveils a 2012 budget proposal that is expected to endorse turning Medicaid into a block grant program.
“We strongly oppose a congressionally-mandated block grant of federal Medicaid spending, which would shift costs and risk to states,” the governors wrote. “Such a cost shift would severely undercut our ability to provide health care to our residents and adequately pay providers.”
Added the signatories: “We are concerned that Congress, in an attempt to reduce the federal deficit, may pursue the exact opposite course of action by creating a mandated block grant which would do little to address cost growth while shifting costs to states and threatening program integrity.”
A shift from current policy to a block grant system would drastically alter the way that state governments administer Medicaid. Under current law, the federal government matches a percentage of the money that states spend on Medicaid. That percentage was upped by the 2009 stimulus legislation in response to the heavy debt burdens facing states.
A block grant program would essentially cap the amount of federal Medicaid money to states, so that in lean times states might have to make drastic cuts -- or hike taxes -- rather then lean on Washington, D.C. While Ryan and others have argued that taxpayers stand to save a good deal of money from such a move, the governors' letter argued that the end result would be 50 far more difficult balancing acts.
“in the face of state and federal budget pressures and rising health care costs, we need federal policy that creates cost savings, not cost shifting,” the governors wrote. “States are already innovating within Medicaid, and the current financing system provides ample room to manage our Medicaid programs to provide increasingly efficient quality care.”
All 17 signatories are Democrats, though notably absent from the list is New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
The Hill initially reported the letter's existence, but The Huffington Post obtained the letter exclusively from a Democratic source.
GOP Budget Abandons American Priorities and Values
Today, House Republicans are releasing their budget for fiscal year 2012. Budgets are about priorities and values, and the Republican budget makes all the wrong choices. Democrats believe we must reduce spending, while protecting investments that create jobs, grow the economy and strengthen American competitiveness. Just like the Republican Spending Bill, the Republican budget rejects America’s top priorities and fundamental values by cutting investments that allow us to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build our competitors.
The Republican budget makes the wrong choices on entitlements, too. Democrats are committed to reducing the deficit and ensuring Medicare and Medicaid are strong for generations to come. Instead of bending the cost curve on health care spending, the Republican budget shifts costs to seniors by ending Medicare as we know it and dismantling Medicaid:
“Republicans say the health care proposals would help the federal government predict and control its costs under Medicaid and Medicare, which insure more than 100 million people and account for more than one-fifth of the federal budget. But if, as many economists predict, health costs continue to rise at a rapid clip, beneficiaries of these programs would be at risk for more of the costs.” [NY Times, 4/5/11]
“Federal health programs for seniors, the poor and people with disabilities would be slashed and transformed under a 2012 budget being unveiled today by House Republicans.” [USA Today,4/5/11]
“With the federal deficit in their sights, Republicans are preparing a budget proposal that would reportedly trim $4 trillion in government spending over the next decade. How do they do it? Ending Medicare as we know it is a key part.” [NPR, 4/4/11]
“The plan would essentially end Medicare, which now pays most of the health-care bills for 48 million elderly and disabled Americans, as a program that directly pays those bills.” [WSJ, 4/4/11]
“This week, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will announce the House Republicans’ budget plan, which is expected to include cuts in many programs for the neediest Americans. The Ryan budget’s central purpose will not be deficit reduction but the gradual dismantling of key parts of government.” [E.J. Dionne, Washington Post, 4/3/11]
“Paul Ryan’s plan for Medicare and Paul Ryan’s plan for Medicaid rely on the same bait-and-switch: They use a reform to disguise a cut... In Medicare’s case, the reform is privatization…. In Medicaid’s case, the reform is block-granting… To my knowledge, Ryan’s budget doesn’t attempt to reform the medical-care sector. It just has cuts. The hope is that those cuts will force consumers to be smarter shoppers and doctors to be more economical and states to be more innovative. But all that’s been tried, and it hasn’t been enough.” [Ezra Klein, Washington Post,4/4/11]
When asked which programs they were willing to see cut by Congress, 91% of Americans said they wanted to see no or only minor reductions in Medicare and 86% wanted to see no or only minor reductions in Medicaid, according to a recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The Republican budget clearly doesn’t share the priorities of the American people.
