Byline: Lisa Friedman Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - The federal deficit may have been the last thing on California congressional leaders' minds Friday as lawmakers approved $10.5 billion in Hurricane Katrina relief aid, but analysts say the newest burden on the national debt shows a federal unwillingness to budget for major disasters.
``Obviously it's going to cost a lot of money. My guess is that it will add tens of billions of dollars to the budget, and since there is no extra money, it's going to add to the deficit,'' said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a D.C.-based group that advocates for the elimination of the national debt.
Members of Congress, Bixby said, ``pretend that emergencies like this are not going to happen when they make the budget.''
President Bush has vowed that the money approved Friday for Hurricane Katrina relief is just a down payment, and that more will follow for emergency efforts and rebuilding.
``In terms of dollars and cents, we know it's going to be very expensive in terms of the federal share,'' said House Appropriations Chairman Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands.
He noted that Congress spent a total of $14 billion for relief for the four previous hurricanes that have hit the United States. ``This one, all by itself, will be much larger than that, but I don't know yet what that means,'' he said.
Regardless, lawmakers said that with the federal government already spending about $330 billion more than it has, any emergency funds will add to the debt - but it's a moral imperative to do so.
``We will spend what we have to spend,'' Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, said. But, he added, ``our overall budget picture is very problematic. We have deficits as far as the eye can see.''
``We're generous with our children's money rather than our own,'' added Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, who said Congress should bring back Clinton-era tax policies to reduce the deficit.
``But that's off the mark. Right now the focus has got to be doing everything we can do to help the people of Louisiana and Mississippi,'' Sherman said.
Bixby said Congress and the White House do a disservice to the country's financial health when they unveil budgets that fail to include money everyone knows must be spent: funding for Iraq, for example, or for long-predicted disasters.
``It's a way of making your numbers look good, and the president can go out and say, 'We're cutting the deficit,''' he said, adding that while few predicted the enormity of Hurricane Katrina, Congress should have been prepared for a major disaster-related budgetary blow and needs to get ready for the next one.
``It's kind of like saying, could New Orleans have been better prepared? Well, could the federal budget have been better prepared?''
Lisa Friedman, (202) 662-8731
lisa.friedman(at)langnews.com
