House devotes $90 million to Medicare payoffs
By James Kuhnhenn
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON (KRT) — House
Republican leaders tucked a payoff
into last week’s emergency anti-ter
rorism spending bill: $90 million in
special Medicare reimbursements
for hospitals in three congressional
districts — two in Pennsylvania,
the other in New York.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, it
turns out, ordered the payoff in ex
change for the lawmakers’ votes to
give President Bush greater trade
negotiating powers.
For all the talk that the Bush ad
ministration would bring frugality
to Washington, the truth is that
spending — both large and in pork
barrel doses — is still the craze.
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And it shows: Government spend
ing is back in the red, Congress has
yet to pass a federal budget to disci
pline its outlays, and the nation’s
legal debt limit — the maximum
the government can borrow — is
about to burst.
The government’s mounting
deficits threaten such bipartisan
goals as low-cost prescription drugs
for the elderly and shoring up So
cial Security for the retiring baby
boom generation. Bush’s commit
ment to end deficit spending in two
years is proving elusive, alarming
Wall Street investors.
They’re unlikely to be reassured
when the Senate returns from its
Memorial Day recess on Tuesday
to take up its version of the emer
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gency spending bill.
The Senate’s $31 billion assort
ment of defense and homeland se
curity outlays is $2 billion more
than the House passed in May and
nearly $4 billion more than the
president requested.
The legislation has become a test
of fiscal discipline that both Con
gress and the Bush administration.
Lawmakers are already tempting
themselves by including an array of
non-emergency pork-barrel goodies
aimed at helping out select con
stituencies back home. And Bush,
eager to get on with the war on ter
rorism, may be willing to pay the
extra price.
At the White House, “They do a
lot of talking about the need for re
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duced spending, but they’ve actu
ally done very little to reduce
spending,” said Joe Theissen, a for
mer U.S. Chamber of Commerce
lobbyist and now head of Taxpay
ers for Common Sense, a nonparti
san fiscal watchdog group. “In an
election year, with clearly some of
this money needed, the White
House has been reticent to say it
will veto the thing.”
Economists are worried, too,
about this year’s likely budget
deficit. Once, 2002 was expected to
chalk up a small surplus. Now it’s
expected to end as much as $140
billion into the red, pushed down
by an unexpected slump in federal
tax revenues.
Just last year, the Congressional
Budget Office predicted a whop
ping 10-year surplus of $5.6 trillion.
The latest forecast, issued in March,
chopped that projection down to
$681 billion and predicted at least
three straight years of deficits. The
reasons are Bush’s $1.35 trillion tax
cut last year, the economic down
turn and increased spending in the
aftermath of Sept. 11.
The red ink promises political
finger pointing, though neither side
is exactly pure. Twelve Senate De
mocrats voted for the tax cuts last
year. And when it comes to spend
ing, Bush two weeks ago disap
pointed fiscal conservatives in his
party by signing a Democrat-in
spired farm bill that will cost $190
billion over 10 years.
The fiscal picture is gloomy
enough that the administration
wants Congress’ permission to bor
row more money by raising the
debt ceiling. No one doubts that
Congress ultimately will acquiesce,
but Democrats want to use the op
portunity to mount a full-throated
assault on Bush’s tax cut.
Still ahead is the annual rite of
passing appropriation bills — the
13 pieces of legislation that fi
nance all the major functions of
government except for Social Se
curity and Medicare.
But first, lawmakers would like
to adopt a budget that sets spending
limits for those appropriations.
Right now the Republican-con
trolled House has settled on $759
billion, including $10 billion in
anti-terrorism money that Bush
could use at his discretion. Democ
rats, who control the Senate by one
vote, want nearly $10 billion more.
Senate majority Leader Tom
Daschle, D-S.D., would like to use
the emergency anti-terrorism
spending bill as leverage to secure
that higher number. “If we can
agree on numbers, and lock in
place a ceiling, that would be real
progress,” he said before leaving for
the Memorial Day recess.
House fiscal conservatives, al
ready wary of big spending on
items such as the farm bill, are
bound to balk, setting up a con
frontation in the House.
Turn to Medicare, page 7
Master Plan
continued from pagel
brainstorming and discussion
stage in the process.
“We plan on being finished
with the draft report in Decem
ber,” said Sarah Miller, a project
team member and the architect in
charge of pre-design and program
ming for the project.
Miller specializes in pre-design
work at institutions of higher edu
cation and has a combined back
ground in architecture and interi
or design.
“Essentially, we are providing a
preliminary guide for growth,
which will be presented to the
University core team in January,”
she said.
Through the next three stages of
the process — “Programming Def
inition,” “Concept Definition”
and “Development of Documenta
tion” — the project team will
work to prepare the presentation
and the final report to obtain ap
proval for the project.
“We’re not at the sexy part,”
EMU Director Dusty Miller said.
“We’re simply defining the vision
and goals of the project at this
point.”
The “sexy part,” as he defined it,
will come when the project team
has fully conceptualized the plan.
At that time, they will begin to ask
organizations, businesses and of
fices in the EMU what they need in
terms of space and convenience of
location, he said. But that stage
won’t follow until mid to late Octo
ber, Sarah Miller said.
The Core Team’s draft of the Mas
ter Plan mission statement is organ
ized by 13 topics and concerns.
Among the list of topics, communi
ty, “way-finding” and technology
have evoked the most discussion in
town meetings and student groups.
“This project has a uniqueness
to it that we all sensed in the selec
tion process,” project team design
architect Stephen Bennion said.
“There is a very intense user in
volvement here ... a lot of care,
which is very interesting because it
poses a challenge and demands a
greater effort.” /*’
During the discussion on com
munity, Core Team members and
community members in atten
dance talked about the “homey”
addition of fireplaces, much like
the natural and colorful flare
added by the fish pond located in
the EMU Food Court.
In the discussion on way-finding,
a topic encompassing issues relat
ed to accessibility and the layout of
the building, one recommendation
that has been made is to create an
information desk to add a “human
touch”. Community members sug
gested more parking to increase ac
cessibility and recommended bet
ter signs to prevent a “maze”
feeling in the building.
‘‘We’re not at the sexy part.
We’re simply defining the
vision and goals of the
project at this point”
Dusty Miller
EMU director
While discussing technology and
how the University has changed
during the past five decades, core
team members suggested placing
solar panels in the EMU Amphithe
ater and improving Internet avail
ability and accessibility throughout
the facility, possibly through “cyber
stations or cafes.”
“This process is about what this
university is about,” said Jeffrey
Stebar, the third architect of the
project team trio. “It’s the Universi
ty of Oregon solution.”
Despite their common goal of im
proving the EMU over the next two
decades, Dusty Miller and Sarah
Miller don’t quite agree on what the
most enticing part of the Master
Plan process is.
“I think the sexy part is the plan
ning,” Sarah Miller said.
Town meetings will be held next
fall for all students, faculty and staff
who have suggestions for the proj
ect. For a list of all the mission
statement areas, visit the EMU Web
site at emu.uoregon.edu and click
on EMU Master Plan.
E-mail reporter Caron Alarab
at caronalarab@dailyemerald.com.