GOP Leaders Try to Soothe Conservatives

GOP leadership officials say the conservatives are the ones out of touch. The hurricanes may have raised anxieties about the federal deficit, but they have pricked the conscience of a nation confronted by its own undercurrent of poverty.

Of the $509 billion in cuts proposed by the House Republican Study Committee, nearly half would come from health care for the poor. Yet Katrina knocked out eight charity hospitals in Louisiana that were helping to keep people off the Medicaid rolls, one House GOP leadership aide said.

Other targets would rekindle political battles that have already been fought and lost, such as eliminating federal support for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

"While I like their idea of offsetting things, I wonder how productive it is," said Rep. Michael N. Castle (Del.), a Republican moderate.

Further complicating such cuts is the unabated spending on defense. A House Appropriations subcommittee yesterday completed a $440 billion military spending bill for 2006 that includes $50 billion for the war in Iraq.

If anything, the pressure could be for more spending. Congress has appropriated $62.3 billion for hurricane relief operations, by far the largest sum for a natural disaster. As of yesterday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency had allocated about $18.3 billion, said House Appropriations Committee spokesman John Scofield -- $2.5 billion in the past four days, as funds were sent to prepare for Hurricane Rita.

But $44 billion remains in FEMA's disaster fund, which can be tapped for relief from either hurricane. That should be enough to push back the next hurricane relief bill until late October, and it could keep total hurricane costs to about $100 billion -- about half of early estimates, G. William Hoagland, a senior Senate budget aide, said yesterday.

But politics could intervene, lawmakers warned. Two of the House districts hardest hit by Rita are represented by freshmen Gohmert and Ted Poe, both of whom owe their seats in part to DeLay's redistricting. Leaders have encouraged the spending of federal largess in freshman districts to solidify House gains, said Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), an outspoken fiscal conservative.

"We hear the rhetoric, that nobody wants earmarks, but the truth is, the leadership likes them," he said. "They like to get you hooked. They make freshmen believe they are the ticket to reelection."