Last Wednesday, the House Budget Committee approved a stark budget resolution that would increase deficits by $254 billion over the next five years, setting the stage for contentious debate this week on the House floor. The resolution sets discretionary spending at meager levels, includes a large increase in defense spending, and assumes continuation of some tax cuts. Its final approval will be the first major test of the new House GOP leadership team, especially of new House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH). Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle (R-IA) set the discretionary spending level at the president's request of $873 billion, a 3.6 percent increase from FY 2006 levels. The entirety of that increase will go to the defense department, however, which would receive a whopping 7 percent increase on top of funding approved for the war in Iraq. All other spending would be held flat, inflicting $10.3 billion in harsh cuts in FY 2007 on a wide range of programs and departments after adjusting for inflation. The resolution would cut $167 billion over five years for domestic discretionary spending outside of defense. The resolution also includes very small cuts to entitlement programs - $6.8 billion spread across 8 different committees. The largest portion, $4 billion, was given to the Ways and Means committee, but very few details have been released about how those cuts would be made or which programs they would affect. It appears additional cuts to the major healthcare programs and student loans - a signature feature of last year's budget - were not included. Finally, the resolution assumes $226 billion in tax cuts over the five-year budget window, including $38.9 billion in FY 2007. The Budget Committee approved the resolution by a 22 - 17 vote after dispatching a number of Democratic amendments. The senior Democrat on the Budget Committee, John Spratt (D-SC), also offered an amendment to re-instate traditional pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) rules - a sound budget enforcement mechanism that has been proven to force Congress to enact responsible budgets and significantly reduce deficits. Republicans on the committee again choose the path of fiscal recklessness by killing PAYGO rules . Among the defeated amendments were proposals to increase discretionary spending in a variety of areas, such as port security, education, health care, job training, community services, environmental protection, first responders, and the National Guard. The bill moves to the House floor this week in what is sure to be a grueling and divisive debate. A handful of moderate Republicans plan to offer a few similar amendments on the House floor this week to those offered by Democrats in committee, and they may find more success. Before the committee markup last week, 23 moderate Republicans sent a letter to Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) meekly calling for more funding for education, health care, housing, and other key urban programs. Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) has stated he believes there are ways to address concerns from moderates in his caucus, but said he will not increase the discretionary spending limit. The House leadership--particularly Boehner, who is presiding over his first budget--is under considerable pressure not only to find a way to convince caucus moderates to vote for the resolution - thereby ensuring its passage--but to do it this week before Congress breaks for a two-week recess. Complicating this situation are warnings from conservatives in the House not to take their support for granted. During debate over the emergency supplemental bill last week, 29 conservative Republicans voted against the GOP leadership in protest because they were upset at the lack of offsets to spending in the bill. The GOP had to rely on the Democrats to get the bill passed. In attempts to appease those conservatives, the GOP leadership has held meetings with the conservative House Republican Study Committee and made public calls for budget process reforms, including the president's line-tem veto proposal, earmark reforms, and future consideration of more radical changes, such as biennial budgeting and sunset commissions. It is unclear, however, if such promises will be enough to hold conservatives in the face of increased discretionary spending. Regardless of the success or failure of moderate Republicans (and Democrats) to improve the budget resolution approved by the Budget Committee last week, the end result will be a budget that sets the wrong priorities and further erodes what little fiscal security America has left. Because of this reality, it is more important than ever for Congress to hear calls to reject this budget. Take action today!