Senate Finance Committee Priorities for 2004

This year's Finance Committee priorities -- at least as outlined in yesterday's letter to the Senate Budget Committee -- are not very inspiring or innovative.

There are no major initiatives, although the Committee at least implicitly requests $50 to $71 billion for health coverage. The letter mentions making tax cuts permanent, although it doesn't say how to "pay for" the trillions of dollars in lost revenue.

Congress is still in shell-shock on the budget. Legislators are trapped between the Bush-Rove economic plan, which implies that deficits don't matter, and the worries of Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan "Omygoodnessdidhereallysaythat" Greenspan, who argued on Wednesday that the deficit situation is sufficiently grave that reductions in Medicare and Social Security benefits are needed.

Links:
Grassley-Baucus letter to the Senate Budget Committee (February 25, 2004)

Testimony of Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan before the House Budget Committee (February 25, 2004)

Posted by Jeff Lemieux at February 26, 2004 06:08 PM