Arlen Specter: “On a close call I have decided to vote for the conference report on the reconciliation bill because the benefits…”

“On a close call I have decided to vote for the conference report on the reconciliation bill because the benefits slightly outweigh the disadvantages in evaluating the tradeoffs. I start with the proposition that the savings of $40 billion over 5 years in the conference report is closer to the $35 billion passed by the Senate than to the $50 billion cuts passed by the House of Representatives. This deficit reduction amounts to less than one-half of 1 percent of total Federal spending, an estimated $13.8 trillion over the next 5 years. Medicaid was a special concern where the conference report of a $4.8 billion reduction was much closer to the Senate figure of $4.3 billion than to the House cut of $11 billion. While I would have preferred targeting different reductions, the conference report does give the States flexibility in the use of Medicaid funds so that the States will be in a position to ameliorate hardships resulting from the proposed reductions. It was important that the conference report included $1 billion in additional budget authority in fiscal year '07 for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, LIHEAP, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will result in $625 million in outlays as we approach the fiscal year 07 winter season which is likely to be very harsh.…”