Ignoring pay-go
GOP playing politics with the deficit When the Democrats were in command of the U.S. House of Representatives, Republicans complained that the Democratic leadership would spring major legislation on them without hearings or debate or a chance to amend the bill. It was a fair criticism, and the Republicans vowed to run the House differently if and when they were again in charge.
Now the Republicans are in charge of the House, and virtually their first act was to spring a major piece of legislation out of their majority leader’s office without hearings or debate or opportunities for amendment. And the GOP leadership scheduled the measure for speedy action. The House will vote on the measure next Wednesday.
The measure is unsubtly titled “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act,” lest some of the slower members not realize they’re voting to kill President Obama and the Democrats’ prize health-care reform.
Republicans freely concede repeal is going nowhere as long as the Democrats control the Senate and the White House, but they argue it is not a complete waste of time because of the vote’s symbolic importance. It is also symbolically important for another, less honorable reason.
To get to that vote, the Republicans, who took office on a pledge to cut the deficit, had to ignore a critical mechanism called pay-as-you-go intended to put a brake on the deficit by requiring that tax cuts and spending increases be offset by tax increases and spending cuts elsewhere in the budget.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says that the new health-care law will save $143 billion over the life of the law. In effect, a vote to repeal health-care is a vote to add $143 billion to the national debt. The Republicans have no plans to cover that amount under the “pay-go,” as it’s commonly called. Apparently adding to the deficit is bad only as long as the other party is doing it.
Moreover, House rules’ changes adopted by the Republicans leave a gaping hole in pay-go. New spending will still have to be offset, but new tax cuts do not. The rules’ change will make tightening the leaky tax code that much tougher by treating loophole closings as tax increases. Future tax cuts, even though deficit financed, will not have to be justified.
Let’s hope the whole health-care repeal charade is simply early grandstanding and not an indicator of a lack of Republican seriousness about the deficit.
Scripps Howard News Service