House Panel Approves Democratic FY 2009 Budget Plan That Would Increase Spending for Health Research, Veterans’ Care

The House Budget Committee on Thursday voted 22-16 to pass a $3 trillion fiscal year 2009 budget resolution that would increase spending for medical research, health care for veterans and other domestic programs by more than the inflation rate and would not address the "exploding growth" of entitlement programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, the AP/Houston Chronicle reports.

The budget resolution includes $22 billion, or almost 5%, more in spending for domestic programs than President Bush has requested (Taylor, AP/Houston Chronicle, 3/6). In addition, the budget resolution also includes a number of Medicare provisions, a $50 billion increase in spending for SCHIP and an outline for electronic-prescribing legislation (Johnson/Goode, CongressDaily, 3/6).

House Budget Committee Chair John Spratt (D-S.C.) said, "Our budget ... is no grand solution, but it moves us in the right direction." The Senate Budget Committee on Thursday will vote on a similar budget resolution that includes $18 billion, or 4%, more in spending for domestic programs than Bush has requested.

Reaction
Bush threatened to veto the House budget resolution because the spending for domestic programs included in the legislation exceeds his request (AP/Houston Chronicle, 3/6). Earlier this week, Bush threatened to veto any FY 2009 appropriations bill that exceeds his request for spending (Cohn, CongressDaily, 3/6).

House Budget Committee ranking member Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) "blasted the Democratic plans for failing to take on the exploding growth of Medicare ... and other federal benefit programs being weighed down by the retirement of the baby boom generation and rapidly rising health care costs," the Associated Press reports. Office of Management and Budget Director Jim Nussle said, "The Democrats' budgets include more of the same -- tax hikes and higher spending," adding, "Their tax and spend agenda will not help our economy or the budget bottom line" (Taylor, Associated Press, 3/5).

According to the AP/Chronicle, efforts to reduce spending for entitlement programs in an election year "would be a painful exercise." The passage of the House budget resolution indicates that Democrats "do not intend to send [Bush] many spending bills this year; they prefer to deal with his successor, who they hope will be a Democrat," the AP/Chronicle reports (AP/Houston Chronicle, 3/6).

Medicare Physician Reimbursements
The House Ways and Means Committee likely will use the fiscal year 2009 budget reconciliation process to pass legislation to delay for one year a 10% reduction in Medicare physician reimbursements scheduled to take effect on July 1, Spratt said. Use of the budget reconciliation process allows legislation to move through the Senate without the threat of a filibuster (Cohn, CongressDaily, 3/6).

Spratt said that he might seek to reduce reimbursements for private Medicare Advantage plans to offset the cost of the legislation, although the proposal likely would result in controversy (Johnson/Goode, CongressDaily, 3/6).