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Some GOP
Senators Resist Proposed Medicaid Cuts
By: Sheryl Gay
Stolberg and David D. Kirkpatrick
President Bush's request that Congress slow the
growth of Medicaid, a centerpiece of the White
House budget for 2006, is drawing opposition
from some Senate Republicans, who are
caught between their desire to support the
president and pressure from home-state governors
resisting the cuts.
One Republican, Senator Gordon Smith of
Oregon, said he would call for a commission to
examine the finances of Medicaid, the government
insurance plan for the poor, in an attempt to
generate bipartisan proposals about how to rein
in the soaring cost of the program. Another,
Senator Mike DeWine of Ohio, said he was worried
about the impact Medicaid cuts would have on his
state. A third, Senator Norm Coleman of
Minnesota, said he was not ready to sign off on
cuts.
''There is widespread concern about what is
being asked in the nature of these cuts,'' Mr.
Coleman said. ''I've got a good Republican
governor in Minnesota who has deep concerns,''
he added, referring to Tim Pawlenty, a popular
conservative considered a rising star in the
party.
The senators, who do not belong to the group of
Republican moderates who often criticize the
administration's fiscal policy, made their
remarks as the Senate Budget Committee passed a
budget resolution for 2006 with a vote along
party lines and no substantive amendments.
Senator Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire,
who is chairman of the committee, trimmed back
the president's proposed spending cuts by about
$30 billion over five years in an effort to
shore up the support of others in the party, but
the committee's budget includes $14 billion in
reductions in projected Medicaid spending over
the next five years.
It is part of an overall goal of reducing
spending on so-called mandatory entitlement
programs by $32 billion during that time. The
House would go even further, proposing $68.6
billion over five years in cuts to entitlements,
programs in which spending is determined by
eligibility. President Bush's five-year budget
proposes $51 billion in entitlement cuts.
Mr. Gregg called the cuts to the growth in
Medicaid ''a marginal rate of restraint, almost
a nonfactor'' that amounted to just 1 percent of
the fund's expected $1.11 trillion size after
five years. But he said, ''There are interest
groups around here that wish to earn their keep
so they have to hyperbolize issues.''
Medicaid is financed jointly by the federal
government and the states. The budget committee
estimates spending on mandatory programs,
including Medicaid, will still grow to $2
trillion in 2010, from $1.5 trillion in 2005,
under the Senate budget.
The reductions, which mark the first time since
1997 that lawmakers have tried to curb spending
on entitlement programs, hint at the
difficulties many Congressional Republicans face
as they consider the budget resolution. While
President Bush, who is vowing to cut the federal
deficit in half over the next five years, is
asking lawmakers to approve steep cuts in
domestic programs, home-state politicians are
complaining about reductions in everything from
farm subsidies to urban renewal grants.
Yet some Senate Republicans think the budget
reductions do not go far enough.
''I think the number could be a lot larger,''
said Senator John Ensign, Republican of Nevada,
who is a member of the budget committee. He
added, ''In the future we're going to have to go
a lot farther because it's unsustainable the way
it is.''
Others say while they are convinced that cutting
entitlements is essential to reducing the
federal deficit, they are reserving judgment
about Medicaid.
''I am not sure this is the right one, but you
are going to have to have some cuts to
entitlements,'' said Senator Sam Brownback,
Republican of Kansas. ''We do have a top line
number that I think we need to get down. I think
there will be reallocation efforts.''
He said he recommended creating a bipartisan
commission to find a package of cuts across the
government, a process similar to the way
Congress seeks to take politically painful
decisions on closing military bases out of its
own hands.
Senator Olympia Snowe, Republican of
Maine and a frequent dissenter within the party,
said she favored Mr. Smith's proposal to create
a commission to assess the finances of Medicaid,
calling the program ''too important to the
neediest populations.''
In a sign that some Republican members of the
budget committee are sensitive to the plight of
the states with respect to Medicaid, the panel
agreed on Thursday to adopt nonbinding language
offered by Senator Jon Corzine, Democrat of New
Jersey, stating that the budget should not ''cap
federal Medicaid spending, or otherwise shift
Medicaid cost burdens to state or local
governments.''
Mr. Gregg described the resolution as ''a benign
amendment.'' But Mr. Corzine said he felt the
committee had given him the ''moral backing'' to
raise the issue of Medicaid spending cuts when
the budget comes to the Senate floor.
The committee on Thursday beat back a series of
other Democratic amendments, including one that
would have stripped language intended to open
the door to oil drilling in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
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