© St. Petersburg Times, published April 22, 2002
WASHINGTON -- Mike Bilirakis is exceedingly loyal to the Republican leadership in the House and, therefore, he voted last week to make permanent President Bush's tax cuts.
But after talking to Bilirakis last week, I came away thinking he was somewhat conflicted by his vote because the tax cut is going to make it harder for him to deliver what his supporters in Florida want most: to slow the rising costs of health care.
Bilirakis, of Tarpon Springs, told me he was amazed by what he learned during a recent meeting with members of the chamber of commerce in his congressional district.
Usually, he said, the business leaders in his community are pushing for more money for roads, sewers and other infrastructure improvements. Or they raise other traditional Republican desires -- lower taxes or less regulation.
This year, instead, the local business leaders told Bilirakis they urgently need Congress to do something that will help ease the rapidly increasing financial burden of providing health care benefits for their workers and retirees.
They want Medicare reform, including a prescription drug benefit for seniors. They also favor legislation that would help lower drug prices by making generics more readily available.
It's no mystery why health care issues have eclipsed some of the more traditional Republican concerns among chamber of commerce members. Many employers are seeing increases of nearly 20 percent a year in their health insurance costs, and those increases are threatening to slow the economic recovery that so many business leaders have been anticipating.
By making the tax cut permanent, Congress is helping some individuals and businesses pay their higher health care bills. But Congress is spending funds that otherwise could be used to provide better benefits for Medicare recipients.
Bilirakis and other Republicans insist that Congress can afford to enact both the tax cuts and some of the other big spending items on the national agenda, such as Medicare reform. They argue that instead of giving up on tax cuts, they must stop spending money on narrow programs that either waste money or provide for things less important than Medicare reform.
Cutting out waste, fraud and abuse is a good idea in theory, but not in practice. You will recall that this was the way Ronald Reagan intended to balance his budget. It never happened, and Reagan left us with unprecedented budget deficits.
How do Republicans intend to resolve the obvious conflict between tax cuts and the demand for costly health care measures such as a prescription drug benefit for seniors? They will lay the blame at the feet of Democrats, of course.
Immediately before Memorial Day, the Republican-controlled House will vote to enact a Medicare reform bill that will include $350-billion for prescription drugs over the next 10 years. They know the Democratic-controlled Senate will balk at the legislation on grounds that $350-billion does not provide enough money to adequately fund a prescription drug benefit for seniors.
The Republicans figure the American voters will then credit the GOP with giving them tax cuts and fault the Democrats for failing to provide some financial relief for those who are carrying the burden of paying for their own prescription drugs.
It seems to me the Republicans are taking a risky political gamble. I am not certain the business leaders in Bilirakis' community and other congressional districts are going to he satisfied with such a half-hearted effort. I suspect many voters will blame Republicans as well as Democrats for failing to deal with Medicare and other health care funding issues.
If President Bush wasn't already aware of the strong desire for health care reform within the traditional GOP constituency, he is now. During a recent meeting at the White House, Bilirakis told the president about the sentiments of the chamber of commerce members in his district.
But Bush seems uninterested in changing the GOP game plan that relies on the popularity of tax cuts to carry the next election for the Republican party.
So wealthy seniors and businesses can use tax cuts to help pay for gigantic increases in health care drug costs. Those who are too poor to pay taxes will simply have to wait longer for some financial relief.
-- Sara Fritz can be reached by e-mail at fritz@sptimes.com, or by telephone at 202-463-0576.