GOP BUDGET ALTERNATIVE: Voting 137 for and 293 against,
the House on April 2 defeated a Republican alternative to the
Democratic budget plan (HJ Res 85, above) that differed, in part,
by permanently extending the full range of Bush-era tax cuts,
freezing most non-defense discretionary spending for five years
and repealing the recently enacted economic stimulus bill except
for its jobless benefits.
Additionally, the GOP fiscal plan would generate less red ink over
five years; give states new authority to set Medicaid policies;
require means-testing for Medicare Part B (doctors' fees)
eligibility; switch Medicare for persons now under 55 to a system
based on private insurance; scale back Social Security for
persons now under 55; permanently stop the creep of the
Alternative Minimum Tax into middle-class brackets and cut the
corporate tax rate to 25 percent.
Adam Putnam, R-Fla., said the GOP budget "offers no new taxes,
lower spending, and lower deficits, and a lesser burden on future
generations, who are going to be expected to carry America into
the 21st century as a strong capitalistic and free society and not
(on) the Venezuelan model that we are creeping ever closer to
each day."
Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said the GOP budget "is the last thing
our economy needs now or down the road, the kind of drastic cuts
to essential services that will raise costs, which will destroy our
ability to compete and to grow. It's a relic of eight long years of a
failed economic policy of the Bush administration. The American
people rejected it."
A yes vote backed the Republican budget.
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