Senate Reduces Medicare and Medicaid Cuts : Lawmakers Refuse to Trim Own Pay by 10%

The Senate Friday overwhelmingly approved a somewhat smaller cut in Medicare and Medicaid funds than President Reagan had asked for, then refused to take a 10% reduction in its own salary.

The votes were taken as the Senate continued to slash away at a fiscal 1986 budget package that is backed by the White House and Senate Republican leaders. The package aims to cut about $52 billion from a deficit now projected to reach almost $230 billion next year if present spending plans are not changed.

Thus far, the Republican-controlled Senate has rejected several major components of the package, including a proposed curb on increases in Social Security and other government pensions and a 3% after-inflation hike in military spending.

Hopes to Salvage Plan

However, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said he is “fairly optimistic” that the package can be salvaged on a final comprehensive vote, after the Senate has had an opportunity to vote individually on the cuts proposed in scores of popular domestic programs.

The Medicare and Medicaid proposal, approved 93 to 6, would cut spending on those programs by $17.5 billion over three years rather than the $20.1-billion reduction proposed under the comprehensive budget package.

In practical terms, it would mean that the Medicare beneficiaries who now pay $19 a month in premiums for coverage of doctor bills and out-patient care would be paying $22.88 three years from now. This represents a middle ground from the $19 monthly premium they would be paying under existing law and the $24.90 premium envisioned under the Administration-backed package.

Although Senate Democrats supported the amendment, they said that they plan to return next week with a proposal of their own that would require no increase in Medicare beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket costs. However, they did not try to offer the proposal when given a chance Friday.

Dole characterized the amendment, with its modest restoration of funds for an enormously popular federal program, as one of the “defensive maneuvers” that Republicans hope can stave off Democratic efforts to do further damage to the overall package. With 21 GOP senators up for reelection in 1986, some of the strongest opposition to the painful budget cuts has come from the Republicans themselves.

“We’re trying to get to a position, with a fair package, where we can hold all the Republicans,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Bob Packwood (R-Ore.), chief sponsor of the Medicare and Medicaid amendment.

However, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) saw the strategy differently: “Their budget’s dead. Everyone knows it.” Democrats, he said, will make their own proposal next week and, “if it fails, we’ll offer another one and another one.”

The move to cut salaries of House and Senate members, now $75,100 a year, to $67,590, was defeated on a 49-49 vote. Vice President George Bush, who has the power to break ties in the Senate, was not present.

Senators filing into the chamber to vote on the pay cut included members of some of the nation’s wealthiest families. As freshman Sen. John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) cast his vote in opposition, there was widespread laughter, and Sen. Alan J. Dixon (D-Ill.) was heard exclaiming: “I love it.”

Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N. C.), sponsor of the amendment, said after the vote: “I notice we lost most of the millionaires in the Senate today,” along with many who “shout the loudest” about deficit reduction. He said that he would try for another vote on the amendment next week.

In addition, the Senate rejected, by a vote of 71 to 27, an amendment by Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) to shut down the controversial Legal Services Corp. and transfer its funding to agricultural programs. Farm-state conservatives provided most of the support for the amendment.