Pelosi to Speaker Hastert: Democrats Will Fight Immoral Republican Budget

December 22, 2005

Pelosi to Speaker Hastert: Democrats Will Fight Immoral Republican Budget

Washington, D.C. - House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to Speaker Hastert today in response to his letter requesting unanimous consent to approve the Budget Reconciliation Conference Report, which was changed earlier this week in the Senate. Pelosi denied the Speaker's request because every single Democrat opposed this immoral budget, which will hurt low- and middle-income families.

Below is the text of Pelosi's letter:

The Honorable J. Dennis Hastert

Speaker

United States House of Representatives

H-232, The Capitol

Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Speaker Hastert:

I am replying to the letter you sent last night requesting unanimous consent to approve the Budget Reconciliation Conference Report, H.R. 4241.

Mr. Speaker, I cannot grant unanimous consent to bring up such contentious legislation. Contrary to its misleading title claiming to reduce the deficit, this bill will actually add billions of dollars to the deficit when combined with the Tax Reconciliation Conference Report, which you will call on the House to pass next year.

Every single House Democrat opposed this immoral bill because of the harmful cuts in student loans, health care, child support enforcement, and other assistance for seniors and low- and middle-income families.

In fact, many Members on your side of the aisle agreed that the draconian cuts were not justified, which is why the Democratic Motion to Instruct conferees to remove these onerous provisions passed by a large margin, 246 to175; 46 Republicans voted for it, nearly one-fifth of your Conference.

Furthermore, allowing the House to review the legislation again, with the Senate's changes, will give the American people and Members on both sides of the aisle the opportunity to fully scrutinize the massive impact of this bill. As you know, we did not have that opportunity prior to House consideration because we were presented in the dead of night with a 774-page conference report that had been written in private, exclusively by Republican Members. Democrats were given only four hours to review the complex provisions that would have sweeping impacts on millions of our fellow citizens. This is no way to pass legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I implore you to end the repeated abuse of the rules by the Republican majority to ram legislation through in such a secretive and unfair manner.

The Budget Reconciliation Conference Report makes a number of changes to the Medicaid cost sharing and benefits flexibility provisions that are even more painful for families than those contained in the House-passed bill. The conference report adopts even harsher increases in Medicaid co-payments and premiums than the benefit cuts in the House-passed bill. In so doing, parents will be forced to pay even more for their children to go to the doctor.

Millions of Americans needing long-term care will find it much more difficult to qualify for Medicaid because of the asset transfer provisions in the conference report, which is why the AARP strongly opposes this unfair provision.

Democrats stand ready to address the specific concerns cited in your letter. With your support, I am prepared to consider moving by unanimous consent each item mentioned in the second paragraph of your letter as separate legislation. These include measures to help Hurricane Katrina victims; dialysis providers who accept Medicare patients; Medicare beneficiaries; doctors seeking Medicare reimbursements; transitional medical assistance for families who have worked their way off welfare; child care assistance for states; extending the Milk Income Loss Contract Program (MILC) program; and funding for state high risk insurance pools under Medicaid. I agree with you that those provisions should be enacted; the best way to do so is by allowing the House to consider them separately from the numerous harmful provisions of the Reconciliation bill.

I would also note that the physician provisions and the extension of the MILC program, which you now say are urgent, were not even included in the House-passed version of the Budget Reconciliation bill. And I also remind you that an extension of the TANF welfare program, which you noted requires enactment, was adopted by unanimous consent early Monday morning.

The budget is a statement of our national priorities and our values as a nation. Unfortunately, the Budget Reconciliation Conference Report fails the moral test by slashing assistance to the middle class and our most vulnerable citizens for the sole purpose of giving more tax breaks to the wealthiest in our nation.

I urge you to accept my offer to move vital items by unanimous consent, and save the contentious parts of this legislation for the thorough consideration of the House, with a recorded vote scheduled when we return in January.

Sincerely,

Nancy Pelosi

Democratic Leader

http://democraticleader.house.gov/press/releases.cfm?pressReleaseID=1342