GOP uneasy on Katrina costs

President Bush faces intra-party unrest as conservatives worry about political backlash with ramped-up spending for Gulf recovery

BY CRAIG GORDON | WASHINGTON BUREAU

September 22, 2005

WASHINGTON - Already getting low marks from voters on Hurricane Katrina, President George W. Bush now is coming under pressure from usually friendlier quarters - conservative Republicans in Congress challenging his whatever-it-costs approach to recovery.

A group of House Republicans yesterday proposed a list of spending cuts to cover the cost of Katrina recovery, saying the White House must make sure the expected $200 billion for hurricane recovery doesn't simply balloon the federal deficit.

"Now is the time to make tough choices to ensure a catastrophe of nature doesn't become a catastrophe of debt," Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) said at a news conference. He heads the 100-member Republican Study Committee that proposed almost $102 billion in cuts next year, though many previously have been rejected by the White House or failed in Congress.

On the Senate side, some Republicans have expressed frustration that the White House isn't doing more to propose its own ideas for spending cuts. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has scheduled a news conference on Katrina spending today, has called on Bush to scrap the upcoming Medicare prescription drug benefit, which the White House has already ruled out.

And at times this week, the White House and congressional leaders - usually adept at sticking to the same message - seemed to be at odds over whether to go ahead now with Bush's plans for making estate tax cuts and income tax cuts permanent.

Treasury Secretary John Snow said Tuesday those issues and others likely would be moved to the "back burner" because of Katrina, only to have House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) say full speed ahead on tax cuts despite Katrina.

The questions from his own party come at a time when Bush is seeing his lowest approval rating ever from voters, a majority of whom fault his handling of Katrina as well as his handling of the Iraq war.

The issue over paying for Katrina even serves to link the storm with Iraq in the minds of some voters - with 42 percent telling an Associated Press poll that some of the $5 billion a month being spent in Iraq should be diverted to Katrina recovery.

The one-two punch of bad news for Bush comes as some in his party are growing nervous that his sinking popularity could be a drag on Republican candidates in the 2006 congressional elections. That's part of what is prompting conservative Republicans to speak up, analysts say, and such questioning also will make it harder for Bush to keep his normally unified party in line behind his second-term goals.

"They're up for election, and he's not," said Stephen Wayne, a expert on the presidency at Georgetown University. "We're moving into crunch time very quickly, and they are obviously afraid of the political fallout."