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The INDEPENDENT, November 17, 2005
The
INDEPENDENT
Published on the first and third Thursdays of each month by
The Independent, LLC, 725 Bridge St., Vernonia, OR 97064.
Phone/Fax: 503-429-9410. Publisher Clark McGaugh,
clark@the-independent.net • Managing Editor Rebecca Mc-
Gaugh, rebecca@the-independent.net • Editor Noni Ander-
sen, noni@the-independent.net
Opinion
Be thankful if you are
able to help other people
America’s favorite holidays – Thanksgiving Day and
Christmas – are near, and many organizations are
seeking donations to help people whose income can’t
provide the basics, much less the extras associated
with those holidays.
Some of us gripe about the continuous pleas for do-
nations. But how would we feel if we were being target-
ed as a way to balance the federal budget?
The House of Representatives is considering legis-
lation that includes reductions in a number of programs
that would hit low-income people hard. The following
information is from the Congressional Budget Office.
• CBO estimates that requiring low-income Medicaid
beneficiaries to pay more out-of-pocket while reducing
covered health care services would reduce spending
by $30 billion over ten years. CBO estimates that
about 80 percent of the savings are expected to come
from decreases in the use of services such as doctors’
visits and prescribed medications, and that ultimately,
more than 100,000 people would lose coverage be-
cause they would have trouble paying premiums. In
addition, states would no longer need to cover all low-
income children enrolled in Medicaid for all medical
services and treatments they are found to need in
medical screenings. Substantial numbers of near-poor
children could lose coverage for such services as eye-
glasses, hearing aids, speech therapy, and crutches.
• CBO estimates that cuts in funding for child sup-
port enforcement would result in $24 billion in child
support going unpaid by non-custodial parents.
• CBO estimates that 295,000 individuals a month
would lose food stamps; the majority of them in low-in-
come working families with children that now receive
food stamps because work and housing expenses
drop their net incomes below the poverty line.
• CBO estimates that 40,000 fewer low-income chil-
dren would receive free school meals each day. Chil-
dren who would be cut off food stamps generally would
lose free school lunches as well. These children would
have to begin paying for school meals in order to re-
ceive them. (They would be charged less than middle-
income children; they generally would qualify for what
are known as “reduced-price” school meals.)
• Child care subsidies would be eliminated for
330,000* children in low-income work-
ing families. The House bill requires
states to place more parents receiving
cash assistance into work programs.
The states will have to provide child care
for these parents, yet the bill fails to
keep current child care funding up with
inflation. (* This figure is an estimate
from the Center on Budget & Policy Pri-
orities; no CBO estimate is available.)
The House bill’s priorities are ap-
palling considering that official govern-
ment data show that poverty, income in-
equality, food insecurity, and health cov-
erage all have worsened in the past few
years. The House approach would exac-
erbate these trends.
The House proposals will be revised
in one way or another, particularly since
the Senate bill is substantially different in
some areas. They could produce the
same amount of savings without sharp
cuts in assistance for low-income fami-
lies, if they wish to do so .
To save $50 billion over the next five
years — the approximate effect of the
House bill — the House could reduce
excessive payments to managed care
plans (as recommended by MedPAC),
lower the cost of prescription drugs un-
der the Medicaid program (as the Sen-
ate did), and cancel two tax cuts exclu-
sively for high-income people that are
scheduled to start taking effect on Janu-
ary 1.
The savings just from canceling the
two new tax cuts, which will provide no
benefit to middle-class households but,
when the new tax cuts are phased in ful-
ly, will provide an additional $19,000 a
year to people making over $1 million a
year, would be more than enough to re-
place all of the House bill’s cuts in assis-
tance programs for low-income families
and individuals.
Because the House and Senate are
far apart on this matter, cuts in low-in-
come mandatory programs will be a key
issue as congressional negotiators try to
agree on a final budget plan, which
would set spending limits for different
parts of the budget this year.
It’s good to know that the House and
Senate budget plans are much closer on
the issue of tax cuts: both include more
than $100 billion in tax cuts, mostly for
upper-income households .
If you are in a position to help others,
be thankful. If you will be getting another
tax break, complaints are shameful.