Did Indiana Republicans vote for challenger Richard Mourdock or against incumbent Richard Lugar in their primary election for a U.S. Senate seat?It’s hard to tell, because voters don’t have to give a reason.KENDALLVILLE – By and large, Rep. Marlin Stutzman dislikes the federal budget blueprint offered Monday by President Obama.
His objections? The proposal raises taxes on high-earners, chips away too slowly at deficit spending and fails to revamp Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
But he is reserving judgment on a White House request to increase spending by the Department of Veterans Affairs by 10.5 percent in fiscal year 2013.
“It definitely has to be justified – why the high increase,” Stutzman, R-3rd, said Monday during an interview at his district office in Kendallville, where he and staff members were having an open house for constituents.
“We realize there is going to be a need, with more veterans coming back” from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, he said.
As a member of the House Budget Committee, Stutzman will have a role in drafting the Republicans’ fiscal plan, due by March 30.
Stutzman is also a member of the House VA Committee. The panel will have a hearing Wednesday morning on VA’s request to spend $140 billion in the year that begins Oct. 1.
The proposal would provide more money for mental health services for military veterans and for programs that help homeless vets. Both are among priorities at the VA Northern Indiana Health Care System.
The system is searching for an existing building in Fort Wayne to house an outpatient mental health clinic. And it seeks to lease unused land next to the VA Medical Center along Lake Avenue for a private developer to finance, build and maintain permanent housing for homeless veterans.
The housing project is on hold because Congress let VA’s leasing authority lapse Dec. 31.
Stutzman said Monday that he and Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., the chairman of the House VA Committee, will tour the local VA Medical Center on Feb. 21.
They also will conduct a veterans forum the same day at American Legion Post 499 on Hillegas Road. Details will be released soon, Stutzman said.
Jennifer Baran-Prall, public affairs officer for the VA’s regional health system, said she had received no information about how VA’s budget pitch might affect local programs and facilities.
Under Obama’s recommendation for spending at all federal agencies, the budget deficit would shrink from $1.33 trillion this year to $901 billion in 2013.
Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., said in a statement that the plan “breaks the president’s promise to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. The administration’s budget also completely ignores the coming insolvency of the entitlement programs that are driving our debt.”
