New Senate budget chairman weighs benefit programs' value

WASHINGTON -- Congress should look at the government's vast array of benefit programs -- which include Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid -- in its hunt for budget savings, the incoming chairman of the Senate Budget Committee said Wednesday.

Slowing the growth of the huge benefit programs could bolster them for the looming retirement of the baby boom generation and help bring resurgent federal deficits under control, Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., said in an interview with The Associated Press.

"Maybe in the past, Congress has been reluctant to wrestle with some of the biggest challenges. So we allow entitlements to grow automatically, without being cognizant of the fact that, 'Hey, this has some long-term obligations,'" he said.

"I just think everything should be on the table in looking at how you handle these problems," added Nickles, who provided no specifics.

The programs, also known as entitlements because they are paid automatically to people who qualify, currently consume more than half the $2.1 trillion federal budget. That proportion is expected to grow steadily, a worry for budget analysts because millions of baby boomers will start retiring later this decade and burden those programs even more.

Nickles' comments underlined what is expected to be his tightfisted approach to federal spending, perhaps even for programs like Social Security and Medicare, which have been thought untouchable.

No slashing

"Don't write something that Nickles is going to start slashing this program or that program," said the Oklahoman, one of the Senate's more conservative and pro-business members. "I'm just trying to step back and say, 'OK, what should we be doing? Is Congress being as energetic as it should be ... has it been looking at every dollar of spending?' I think we should."

Nickles' comments were also a departure from the recent behavior of lawmakers, who have increased federal benefits for farmers and Medicare providers like doctors and hospitals. There is expected to be a major push next year to create new Medicare coverage for prescription drug benefits, which cost $320 billion under a 10-year GOP plan the House passed last June.

The last major savings enacted in benefit programs came in 1997, when savings from Medicare reimbursements to providers were included in that year's budget-balancing deal between President Clinton and Congress.

Nickles acknowledged that similar collaboration would be needed for any new effort to pare savings from benefit programs, saying, "To do entitlement reform requires bipartisan cooperation."

Nickles cast doubt on whether he would seek to change benefit programs in his first budget, which he will try producing by next spring. He said he expected his budget to be close to what President Bush will offer early next year.

"I'd be kind of surprised if he says, 'Hey, we're going to have comprehensive entitlement reform in January,"' Nickles said. "I'm not proposing that."

Outgoing budget committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said Nickles' comments raised questions because of their vagueness.

"They're going to have a chasm in their budget," said Conrad, referring to a likely deficit next year approaching $200 billion. "It may compel them to take pretty draconian steps at some point. ... I don't think we should cut Social Security. I don't think we should cut Medicare."

"I will be surprised if he can move anything of any significance," said Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., top Democrat on the House Budget Committee. "These are tough issues to take on. They dwarf anything else."

White House spokesman Trent Duffy said of Nickles' call for looking for benefit savings, "That's exactly the kind of thing we embrace."

Members of both parties, including Bush, have often talked of needing to revamp Social Security and other benefit programs, usually without providing details. During his 2000 election campaign, Bush supported using some Social Security funds to create private investment accounts but was not specific.

Nickles also said he wants to limit the growth of the $750 billion part of the budget covering federal agencies' programs. He said their recent growth of 7 percent annually or more "just isn't sustainable," but said he has not decided what the limit should be.

Nickles will replace the committee's longtime top Republican, Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico. Domenici will chair the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in the new Congress that convenes Jan. 7.