MO-ECAP group demands Emerson oppose funding cuts

But Emerson's congressional office says the groups are barking up the wrong tree, at best, and isn't bowing to the pressure.

Reacting to what they said were cuts to the federal budget affecting seniors and disadvantaged residents, the Missouri Emergency Campaign for America's Priorities (MO-ECAP), spokespersons for the main groups in the campaign in a conference call Thursday afternoon accused Republican members of Congress of seeking to delay a vote until after the November elections on what they called "draconian cuts" to programs covered by the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Departments' appropriations request.

"We urge Rep. Emerson and all of the Missouri delegation to oppose the Republican spending bill," said Margarida Jorge of Missouri ProVote, "that would cut funding for already-starved education, health and social service programs."

She added that "after years of slashing critical program to line the pockets of millionaires and special interests," the president and Republicans in the House were seeking yet more cuts to vital services and programs. "We're especially concerned in the 8th Congressional District since this going to really hit people hard," she said. "It's an area where there are a disproportionately high number of elderly and people with disabilities."

Jorge said a recent move postponed a vote on appropriations, which she said was aimed to avoid a voter backlash until after the elections. "That really outrages us," she said, "because we feel Missouri voters deserve to know where our members stand before they go to the polls."

Jorge added that as a result of "these egregious budget cuts," local and state education, health, social services and job training would suffer.

Moira Mack of Hildebrand and Tewes Consulting, apparently working with the Missouri forwarded a spreadsheet after the conference call showing figures representing funding for various programs within the three departments and inflation-adjusted reductions from fiscal year 2002 to 2007 in the departments, almost without exception.

For example, the figures show that funding for the Job Corps is reduced between FY'02 and FY'07 from an what is said to be inflation-adjusted $1.65 billion in FY'02 to an unadjusted $1.52 billion in FY'07. Without inflation adjustment, however, the figures provided show increases from $1.45 billion in FY'02 to $1.54 billion in FY'05 and $1.59 billion in FY'06 before a decline to $1.52 billion for FY'07.

Other programs show similar increases before, but decreases after, inflation.

Interestingly, figures provided by the office of Rep. Emerson in tell a somewhat different story. In very few cases do the figures from the congresswoman's office, prepared independently of those from the Missouri Emergency Campaign for America's Priorities even cover the same programs as those from MO-ECAP.

That is, programs reflected in MO-ECAP's figures do not show up in the figures from Emerson's office, nor vice versa. For example, despite MO-ECAP's deploring of what it said were cuts to job training and health care, it provided no clearly discernible figures for health professional training. On the other hand, figures from Emerson's office indicated the appropriations bill "restores devastating cuts in the budget request to critical programs that improve the availability of well-trained health care professionals to underserved areas," to the tune of $18 million more than last year.

It also, according to figures from the congresswoman's office, provides $47 million in scholarships for disadvantaged students, same as last year and well above the $10 million budget request.

In one case, however, the two sets of figures do cover the same program. MO-ECAP shows the Ryan White AIDS program received funding increases, before and after inflation from FY'02 ($1.91/2.17 billion) through FY'05 ($2.07/2.18 billion), followed by a decrease without inflation in FY'06 ($2.04 billion) and an increase in FY'07 ($2.11 billion).

The figures from Emerson's office a similar FY'07 figure ($2.1 billion), noting it was $70 million above the preceding year's figure, if $25 million below the budget request. Overall, in any case, Emerson's office disputed MO-ECAP's accusations of cuts to the appropriations of the three departments, draconian or otherwise. "The discretionary appropriation for FY'06 was $141.08 billion for these three departments," said Emerson communications director Jeffrey Connor in a telephone interview right after the conference call. "And for FY'07 it's $141.93 billion."

Connor noted the FY'07 appropriation was also about $4 billion more than the $137.8 billion budget request for the fiscal year.

Sharon Parker, an aide at Northwest Missouri Psychiatric Rehabilitation in St. Joseph and president of local 659 of the Association of Federal, State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), added her facility was directly impacted by what she said were cuts in spending for Missouri mental health services. "The rules for our facility require one staff member for every five residents," she said.

Parker added, however, that on some nights there is only one aide for every 10 residents. "And sometimes we don't even get bathroom breaks because we have to remain in the area for the safety of each other," she said.

The facility, Parker said, houses individuals involuntarily committed by the state, as well as criminally insane patients.

Connor responded generally that Emerson had indeed opposed the appropriations bill in the previous fiscal year since it did not have much in the way of funding for rural health care programs. Upon their reinclusion, Connor said, Emerson had voted for the bill.

"And let me put it this way," Connor said in summary. "If we cut 2 percent of waste and abuse out of the Medicare program, the illegal aliens and the people above the income limits that fixed their books so that they looked like they were eligible for government help, then that's a reduction in spending.

"Don't people want that reduction in spending?"

gexelby@dailystatesman.com