Getting Serious about Deficit Reduction

By U.S. Senator Jon Kyl Last week the Senate, with my support, passed legislation that will reduce the federal deficit by nearly $40 billion over the next five years. There are two ways to look at the Deficit Reduction Act. One, $40 billion is undeniably a great deal of money, and the vote would thus seem to indicate a victory for the taxpayer. Thats certainly why I supported it. But at the same time, compared to the size of the federal budget deficit - to say nothing of the budget itself - it hardly heralds a widespread rediscovery of fiscal discipline and restraint. In fact, its not even a budget cut. The savings amount to a reduction in the rate of growth of entitlement spending by about one-half of 1 percent. And even this effort to modestly slow the rate of government expansion succeeded by the only slimmest of margins, on a vote of 51-50 (Vice President Cheney had to break the tie in his constitutional role as president of the Senate.) All 45 Senate Democrats voted against it. To the many critics who will say that this is hardly a sufficient spending cut when the federal government is dealing with, for example, the cost of Hurricane Katrina, I can only say, youre absolutely right. But as is evidenced by the 51-50 vote, and facing the opposition of literally every single Democratic member of the Senate, you can see the options were limited. I do believe that the bill marks an important first step toward fiscal responsibility for its Republican supporters. It is the first time Congress has acted to control entitlement spending since 1997, and manages to save money while providing new funding for a handful of critical programs. At the same time, the bill demonstrates that Senate Democrats claims to support deficit reduction are rather hollow, and makes it hard to take seriously their criticism of deficit spending under President Bush. To put it simply, if you cant find .5 percent of waste to trim, youre obviously not looking very hard. This is particularly true given that the bill does not cut anyones actual federal benefits - it simply makes a number of programs more efficient. For example, the bill improves federal student loan programs by reducing lenders fees, raising borrowing limits, and expanding grant aid, while at the same time streamlining administration procedures to make the whole process easier for both parents and students. It also extends and strengthens the work requirements of the bipartisan welfare reform that President Clinton signed into law in 1996, and fully implements President Bushs initiative to promote marriage. Seniors will be relieved to know that the bill staves off a planned cut in physician reimbursement rates under Medicare that were widely predicted to drive many doctors out of the program entirely. There are also a number of relatively arcane sounding provisions of the bill that will actually have a significant impact on ordinary Americans safety and security. One sets (for the first time) a deadline of February 17, 2009 for the transfer of analog broadcast spectrum that television stations will no longer need as the country makes the transition to digital television. This spectrum will be provided to state and local governments to improve the interoperability of first-responder communications systems. In plain English, that means well finally be able to solve the common problem of police in one jurisdiction not being able to communicate directly with their counterparts in neighboring towns. The ability of the federal government to help with things like the cost of Hurricane Katrina is dependent upon the willingness of taxpayers to foot the bill. They are very generous as long as they know their representatives are setting priorities and finding ways to pay for such costs without simply borrowing from future generations. This bill is a humble but meaningful start. Sen. Kyl serves on the Senate Finance, Judiciary and Energy & Natural Resources committees and chairs the Republican Policy Committee. Visit his website at www.kyl.senate.gov/.