House passes Democratic budget plan
Twelve Democrats voted against the proposal.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Democrats pushed their budget blueprint to passage Thursday, promising a big surplus in five years by allowing tax cuts passed in President Bush's first term to expire.
The plan would award spending increases next year to both the Pentagon and domestic programs, but defers difficult decisions about unsustainable growth in federal benefit programs such as Medicare.
The 216-210 vote sets up negotiations with the Senate, which last week passed a budget blueprint with spending increases similar to the House plan. The Senate plan would not generate surpluses since it assumes lawmakers will renew the most popular of the tax cuts due to expire at the end of 2010.
Twelve Democrats, mostly from GOP-leaning states such as Indiana, opposed the budget plan.
Democrats said the 2.9 trillion plan for next year would point the way to a surplus after years of red ink under Bush and a GOP-controlled Congress. Republicans countered that a 153 billion surplus in 2012 would appear only if tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003 expire in four years -- amounting to the "largest tax increase in American history."
The measure reflects a choice by Democrats to increase spending on domestic programs funded each year by appropriations bills -- including education, health research, environmental protection and grants to local governments -- while forestalling binding decisions on what to do when tax cuts expire.
As a practical matter, the future of the Bush tax cuts will likely be decided after the 2008 presidential election, with their fate depending on the balance of power after the election and on the fiscal outlook at that time. Republicans said increased spending now would put renewal of the tax cuts at a disadvantage when they are considered.
Republicans had hoped for permanent tax cuts when originally fashioning them in 2001, but an obscure Senate rule prevented that. They never held subsequent votes to make all of them permanent, despite Bush's annual calls to do so.
The 2001 and 2003 tax-cut laws lowered rates on income, investments and large estates, and contained tax breaks for married couples and people with children, among others.
Process
Congress' annual debate on the budget is guided by an arcane process in which a nonbinding budget resolution sets the stage for subsequent bills affecting taxes and benefit programs such as Medicare, as well as the annual appropriations bills.
In most years, Congress leaves alone difficult budget issues and simply focuses on the 12 annual bills funding the budgets of Cabinet agencies such as Defense, Education and Agriculture.
This year is likely to be such a stand-pat year.
The House plan would award domestic agencies, on average, budget increases of 6 percent over current levels, far the less than the under 1 percent increases Bush recommended. Increases under the companion Senate measure are about 4 percent.
Extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts would cost about 250 billion in 2012 alone, which would balloon to 389 billion after accounting for extending other tax cuts and adjusting the alternative minimum tax so it does not ensnare more than 20 million more middle class taxpayers.
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