Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 26, 1990 TAG: 9007260595
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Don't.
"That's the poison pill for any solution," said Machtley, R-R.I.
"Social Security would be awful," said Clarke, D-N.C. "Medicare should be only a last resort."
Machtley and Clarke both represent districts with large numbers of retired people and both expect tight re-election races this fall.
But their reluctance to slash Social Security and Medicare is shared by most members of Congress. That's why budget bargainers, who are likely to cut programs that help the elderly, are exploring those reductions with all the trepidation of kids tiptoeing into an isolated, dark cave.
"F-16s [fighter planes] don't vote, senior citizens do," said House Majority Whip William Gray, D-Pa., referring to the Democratic preference to cut deeply into the defense budget.
"That's a political reality of an election year."
Negotiators from the White House and Congress have been trying for 11 weeks to reduce the federal budget deficit by increasing taxes and trimming programs. White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said Wednesday that the two sides had agreed to present specific proposals as early as week's end.
The talks are being watched closely by senior citizens' organizations. Those groups have warned the negotiators to leave Social Security alone and go after Medicare only as part of a package in which all groups - not just the elderly - bear some pain.
"It would be very tough to argue to the people affected by these cuts that it's a fair sacrifice for them if they look around and see other people not suffering with the same intensity," said lobbyist John Rother of the 32-million-member American Association of Retired Persons.
Members of both parties involved in the budget talks say it now appears unlikely that Social Security benefits will be cut.
"Social Security has been described as the third rail of American politics. If you touch it, you die," said Rep. Bill Frenzel, R-Minn., a negotiator who favors restraining the program's growth.
But the Bush administration supports some cuts in the program - which helps support 39 million elderly and disabled people and their dependents - and the issue isn't completely off the bargaining table.
Medicare, which provides health coverage for 33 million elderly and disabled Americans, appears targeted for at least $3 billion in reduced payments to doctors and hospitals.
The reason Social Security and Medicare are vulnerable boils down to arithmetic.
Budget negotiators are trying to reduce next year's projected $169 billion deficit by at least $50 billion. That's a lot of money, even for a $1.2 trillion budget, so the bargainers are looking for big targets.
They've found them in Social Security and Medicare. Social Security is the biggest federal benefit program and will cost $245 billion this year. Medicare will have a $97 billion price tag.
Together, they account for more than one dollar of every four the government will spend in 1990.
As the country's population ages - and medical costs soar - these programs are expected to grow even more. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office projects that by 1995, Social Security will cost $338 billion and Medicare will cost $183 billion.
by CNB