Republicans Shrug Off Deficit Woes In Half-Trillion-Dollar Binge

Doctors’ Pay

In the Senate, lawmakers struggled with offsets before they passed the fix to the physicians’ pay under Medicare. They first voted 42-58 to reject an amendment by Senator Mike Lee that would have required the measure to comply with pay-as-you-go budget rules.

Lee, in an opinion column this week in the Deseret News, complained that the new spending in the bill “comes right after the Senate just passed a 10-year balanced budget that specifically doesn’t account for these additional costs.”

“That’s how a feel-good, bipartisan compromise comes in -- with a $141 billion price tag,” he wrote.

Advocates for balanced budgets are troubled by the recent measures, saying the actions will exacerbate the expanding debt and deficit.

Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said in a statement that adding more debt atop a record-high level of $18 trillion is worrisome.

“This failure to pay for this legislation is completely at odds with rhetoric about fiscal responsibility and balanced budgets,” she said.

‘Bust’ Budget

“It is impossible to take a budget resolution seriously if lawmakers pass a balanced budget and then bust that budget plan before it is even finalized,” she said.

In responding to such criticism, Republicans highlight the benefits of making tax cuts permanent rather than extending them every year or two, enabling businesses to plan better and spurring economic activity.

Some also point out that cutting taxes is one way to force a reduction in the size of government through lower revenue -- and that those are goals that many Republicans support.

Democrats complain about Republicans’ endorsement this year of so-called “dynamic scoring” in their budget plan -- a practice allowing estimates of spurred economic growth, and thus higher future tax revenue, to be used to offset the projected costs of their original tax cuts.

Representative Raul Grijalva of Arizona, co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said this budgetary “sleight of hand” has enabled Republicans to continue to place the cost- cutting burden more on domestic, non-military programs with cuts, even as they add to the deficit with tax cuts.

“It’s not only hypocritical, it’s cruel,” he said.