Congress and the Budget

we will return to the budget in the final section of the course. By law, Congress is supposed to pass a budget resolution by April 15. Its easier to be an opposition party than to be a majority party and to have to unite your coalition, however:

House Republicans on Course for Budget Clash

By Jonathan Weisman and Shailagh Murray
Tuesday, April 4, 2006; Page A21

At least half a dozen moderate Republicans have declared their opposition to the budget, as written, and with Democrats united in opposition, GOP leaders cannot afford many more defections.

Moderates are demanding $7 billion more for labor, health and education programs, the same amount that their counterparts in the Senate were able to extract in their budget fight last month. To get that increase, they will propose either raising the cap on discretionary spending or offsetting the domestic spending through defense cuts.

But conservatives are just as resolute that Republicans hold the line on spending, lest the GOP's base voters abandon a party that has overseen the most dramatic fiscal shift from surpluses to deficits in the nation's history. Even with a virtual freeze on domestic programs, the House budget would add $3 trillion to the national debt over the next five years -- largely by extending expiring tax cuts and allowing spending on entitlement programs such as Medicare to rise virtually unimpeded.

Castle would not venture to guess how the showdown will turn out. But moderates, many of them eyeing tough reelection fights in the fall, are ready to test the House's new leadership team.