Federal budget battle: A question of values

The federal budget and tax cuts will top the agenda when Congress gets back to work this month. The first item of business will most likely be a final vote on a budget reconciliation bill that passed the House and Senate by the closest of margins before Congress adjourned for its holiday break Dec. 21. Minor amendments in the Senate bill necessitate another vote in the House in February.

No Democrats in either chamber supported this bill that House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi decried as immoral. In the Senate, defecting Republicans were numerous enough to force Vice President Cheney to cut short a trip to the Middle East to cast the tie-breaking vote.

The bill cuts $39.7 billion from the federal deficit over the next five years; $12.7 billion—or 32 percent of the deficit “savings”—comes on the backs of college students and families who rely on student loans. These are the largest cuts in the student aid program’s history. The draconian bill also cuts funding from Medicaid and other vital domestic programs, such as child support enforcement and assistance programs for seniors and low- and middle-income families, while preserving tax cuts for the rich.

More than three-quarters of the proposed tax breaks would go to the wealthiest 14 percent of U.S. households, the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities reports. In contrast, families with children in college would pay an additional $5,800 in interest due to slashed student loan programs.

The same bill also includes provisions that were part of the Higher Education Act reauthorization discussion. It allows a lifting of the “50 percent” rule, for example, which ends an important restriction on distance education providers.

A Backdrop of Pain
For working families, the pending program cuts only add to the pain of budget decisions made at the end of 2005. Two appropriations bills signed into law on Dec. 30 put education and other vital domestic programs in the crosshairs. For the first time in a decade, Congress funded the U.S. Department of Education at a level less than the prior year, leaving many key programs underfunded. That low funding was reduced even more when the Department of Defense (DOD) appropriations bill was approved with an across-the-board 1 percent cut to all domestic discretionary spending programs.

One result is that the maximum Pell Grant will remain at $4,050, where it has been for several years.

The DOD bill includes long-awaited hurricane relief for students and schools, including $200 million for colleges. Unfortunately, the $1.4 billion relief package fails to address the full range of needs among schools ravaged by the storms. Congress also allowed both public and nonpublic schools to receive aid—but nonpublic schools will receive a disproportionately large share. And the AFT is concerned about the precedent-setting potential of aid for private school students, since it could pave the way to additional private school vouchers.

In another December action, Congress extended the USA Patriot Act, set to expire Dec. 31, 2005, for just one month to allow more debate over controversial measures relating to government secrecy and individual privacy.

Moving Forward
“The AFT is again mobilizing our grass-roots network and will be working aggressively to defeat the budget reconciliation bill in the House,” said AFT legislative director Tor Cowan.

“Our previous grass-roots efforts that helped bring the budget reconciliation to a halt could not have occurred without the thousands of AFT members who contacted their representatives in support of AFT’s position. Bipartisan outreach, particularly to the many moderate Republicans who have expressed doubts about the plan, is key.”

AFT members are encouraged to contact their representatives and let them know vital domestic programs must not be sacrificed to another reckless tax cut. Quick updates and guidance are available on the AFT e-Activist network at www.aft.org/e-activist.