Dems' budget plan would boost non-defense spending

House Budget Committee ranking member John Spratt, D-S.C., Wednesday outlined the alternative budget he will offer during Thursday's floor debate that would provide more generous funding for non-defense discretionary spending in fiscal 2001 than the plan of Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio.

Spratt's plan would provide much less money for tax cuts than Kasich's plan but comparable amounts for defense. Spratt's alternative calls for non-defense appropriations to increase from the fiscal 2000 level of $288 billion in budget authority to $309 billion in fiscal 2001, or $20.2 billion more than Kasich's $289 billion. Over five years, Spratt's budget would increase non-defense discretionary spending by $118 billion to keep pace with inflation. Democrats would beef up funding on energy research and development, education initiatives, agriculture, veterans programs, law enforcement and public lands purchases.

Because the House Rules Committee has not yet written the rule for the budget debate, Spratt declined to provide specifics on his budget's defense numbers, saying only that it "tracks the president on defense" and has $2.1 billion less over five years in budget authority than the GOP budget. Clinton's fiscal 2001 budget proposed $306 billion for defense, while the Kasich budget allocates $307 billion.

Spratt's budget also includes net tax cuts of $50 billion over five years and $3 billion in fiscal 2001, compared to $10 billion in fiscal 2001 and between $150 billion and $240 billion over five years in the Kasich budget.

Spratt said his budget also contains reconciliation instructions for Congress to spend $40 billion on a Medicare prescription drug benefit, while Kasich only creates a reserve fund for the same purpose. Spratt added that if Kasich's Medicare reserve fund were tapped, the maximum amount of tax relief used, and additional debt service calculated, the GOP budget would reduce the five-year projected on-budget surplus of $107 billion to just $8 billion.

Even as the House prepares to vote on its budget plan this week, the Senate Budget Committee remained at an impasse and its scheduled Thursday markup remains on hold. At presstime, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Phil Gramm, R-Texas, leader of the conservative opposition to Domenici's draft budget, had not yet resolved their differences nor were they scheduled to meet.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., Wednesday said the Senate will vote on the budget "if not next week, then the first week in April." He said he is "willing" to have the budget discharged from committee and brought directly to the Senate floor after April 1, as provided for under budget law, but he "would prefer the Budget Committee do it." Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., responded: "We would be supportive of whatever it is to stay on time ... If this will accelerate our opportunities to ensure that we meet the deadlines ... we'd be for it."

Meanwhile, Senate Democratic leaders Wednesday blasted Republican budget proposals as "risky, radical and reckless," and said their own alternative budget plan is a work in progress that will be unveiled only after Senate GOP leaders put their cards on the table.