The last
time Congress achieved big savings was the FY 1994 Budget Reconciliation
Act, which included $55.8 billion in Medicare savings and a $102
billion freeze in discretionary spending. Now, we're close to
completing a similar package with the goal of reducing the deficit.
This is important because Congress has been spending too much
money and the federal government has some added obligations to
help repair the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.
The bill
to cut spending was derailed for a while when the Democratic leadership
brought floor debate to a halt through a parliamentary stunt and
forced us to spend more than three hours in closed (i.e. secret)
session rehashing an investigation of pre-Iraq war intelligence.
Thursday
night, however, the Senate passed by a vote of 52-47 the Deficit
Reduction Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 2005, which, according
to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, would reduce
federal outlays by more than $35 billion over the year 2006-2010
period (and $109 billion from 2006 to 2015).
This major
step in combating runaway entitlement and discretionary spending
involved eight separate Senate committees meeting, and exceeding,
their assigned targets (although they could have achieved even
more savings).
The Finance
Committee, on which I sit, approved more than $10 billion in reductions,
mostly through changes in Medicare management (without reducing
anyone's benefits). The Judiciary Committee, on which I also sit,
saved $300 million over 5 years by adjusting immigration visa
schedules and increasing fee amounts for certain employment-based
visas.
Other committees
found ways to increase revenues without raising taxes. One provision,
for example, would provide royalties to the government and increase
America's energy independence by opening a small section of the
Arctic Natural Wildlife Refuge to environmentally responsible
oil exploration. This will reduce prices at the pump over time,
and also create hundreds of thousands of jobs and contribute billions
to the economy.
We also
took great care to achieve the vast majority of our savings from
programs that don't affect low-income Americans, and from changes
in the relationship between the federal government and private
companies.
We're still
working on other deficit reduction measures I've proposed:
* Eliminating
pork-barrel "earmarks" in the recently passed-highway
bill. (Savings: $20 billion.)
* Freezing
the cost of living allowances for members of Congress, which allows
us to lead by example even if the actual savings are relatively
small. (Savings: $2 million) This has passed the Senate as part
of the Treasury appropriations bill.
* Imposing
a 5 percent discretionary spending cut across the federal government,
exempting the departments of Defense and Homeland Security, and
leaving a 1 percent "hold harmless" contingency for
"essential" programs which the president, in consultation
with the chairmen and ranking minority members of the authorizing
committees, would select. (Savings: $16.5 billion.)
As with all
natural disasters, the suffering of Katrina's victims is real
and acute, but it does not change the reality that the money to
help them has to come from somewhere. The federal government is
no different than any other organization that suffers a major
disaster: we have to reconsider and reorder our financial priorities
in response.
Sen.
Kyl serves on the Senate Finance and Judiciary committees and
chairs the Senate Republican Policy Committee.
