Increased economic tyranny for poor

[Charles Brown <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Here it is --- the proposal to implement the Clinton cuts.

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Published Tuesday, June 7, 2005

http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm4502_20050607.htm
<http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm4502_20050607.htm>

Welfare changes among those in the House GOP balanced budget plan

BY AMY F. BAILEY

ASSOCIATED PRESS





LANSING -- State House Speaker Craig DeRoche says this week's efforts to
balance next year's budget is a lot like watching the Discovery Channel's
"Shark Week."

"I don't always know what they're going to run on Tuesday, Wednesday and
Thursday, but I know that if I stay tuned in that I'll get to see some
quality programming. That's what we have planned this week," the Novi
Republican said during a Monday news conference to announce the House GOP's
$39.6 billion spending plan for the budget year that starts on Oct. 1.

"This is "Budget Week' in the House of Representatives in Lansing and we
will go through every detail. We will work around the clock as necessary in
the House to put out a balanced budget that does not raise taxes."

The House Appropriations Committee was getting its first look at the GOP
spending plan at its Tuesday meeting. The 29-member panel is expected to
vote on it either Wednesday or Thursday with a vote from the full House the
following day, DeRoche said.

Most of the House GOP proposal is included in one bill that covers many
areas of state government, including prisons, public universities and health
care for the poor. Previously, both chambers of the Legislature voted on
individual spending plans for each state department.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Scott Hummel, R-DeWitt, said the new
process is more efficient than the previous system.

"It puts everything on the table at once for people to review and comment
on," he said.

Hummel and DeRoche would not detail which programs and services got cut in
their proposal. They said they wanted to lay out the details of their plan
to their Democratic colleagues before making them public.

House Republicans have criticized Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm's budget
proposal because it includes a number of tax and fee increases. They said
such increases would prevent the state's struggling economy from rebounding.

Without tax and fee increases, however, House Republicans have to come up
with at least $543 million in reductions to balance the budget, according to
an analysis of Granholm's budget proposal by the nonpartisan House Fiscal
Agency.

After an appearance at a DaimlerChrysler AG exposition in Washington, D.C.,
Granholm said this has been the most difficult year to come up with a budget
because of spending reductions in the past few fiscal years.

"This is why we proposed closing some loopholes so that we wouldn't have to
cut the legs out from under health care for vulnerable citizens or cut
public education funding, let violent prisoners out of jail or cut revenue
sharing because cities and townships have been cut so much in the past," she
said.

Welfare is one of the programs that would see a change under the House
Republican plan.

It would ask the federal government for permission to stop providing
assistance to more than 9,000 people who have been on welfare for more than
five years beginning Jan. 1, DeRoche spokesman Matt Resch said.

The House GOP also is considering cutting off benefits for an additional
5,000 who have been receiving aid for more than four years, he said.

It is unclear how much money would be saved by making the changes, but the
funding would go toward job training and educational programs instead of
benefits, Resch said.

Department of Human Services Director Marianne Udow said she will fight the
proposed change.

"We have looked at this population, and a large percent of them are people
with significant mental health problems, drug abuse problems. If we just cut
off their benefits, what will happen to them? They will be homeless or end
up involved with the criminal justice system," she said.

Rep. Gretchen Whitmer, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations
Committee, said she agreed with DeRoche's "Shark Week" analogy for this
week, but for different reasons.

"You hear the music, but you don't know what's coming," said Whitmer, of
East Lansing.

Copyright C 2005 Detroit Free Press Inc.