WASHINGTON — All but the poorest seniors in South Carolina and elsewhere might have to wait two years to use a new prescription drug benefit to help Congress offset the price tag for aid to the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast.

That’s one of the ideas under consideration by a group of Republican fiscal conservatives that includes Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, John Ensign of Nevada, John McCain of Arizona and John Sununu of New Hampshire.

They also are considering a spending freeze on most federal programs that could save $112 billion in two years. The delay on the new Medicare prescription drug program would save $30 billion in one year.

Congress already has approved more than $60 billion in federal aid for parts of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi hit by Hurricane Katrina. Louisiana Sens. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat, and David Vitter, a Republican, estimate that it will take $250 billion to rebuild the region.

The estimate could rise even higher depending on the damage Hurricane Rita inflicts over the weekend.

In the House, Rep. Bob Inglis, R-Travelers Rest, agreed Congress must cut its spending to reduce the growing national debt that he likened to a home mortgage.

“The question we need to face is at what point the mortgage becomes too big for us,” Inglis said.

Inglis said he would consider a delay in starting the Medicare drug benefit and might be willing to forgo the $18.8 million in local projects he got included in the recently approved $286-billion highway and transit bill. That move could cost Greenville $3.6 million for the West Georgia Road and $6.8 million for road work at Clemson University-International Center for Automotive Research.

“Reluctantly, I would agree,” Inglis said.

Graham’s and DeMint’s group plans to deliver a package of proposals to Senate Republican leaders in two weeks.

It’s not clear how much enthusiasm there is in Congress or the White House for spending cuts. For example, politically powerful groups such as AARP, which counts almost 37 million seniors as members, would likely put up stiff resistance to any delay in the Medicare drug program.

“We don’t see delaying this bill as an option,” said David Certner, AARP’s federal affairs director.

But the National Taxpayers Union, a nonpartisan grass-roots group that advocates lower taxes, contends Congress has been on a spending binge too long.

“The National Taxpayers Union hopes Hurricane Katrina will be a wake-up call,” spokeswoman Annie Patnaude said.

Although President Bush remains vague on which spending cuts might be acceptable, Graham and DeMint are more critical of Congress than the president when it comes to fiscal discipline.

At a news conference this week, Graham recalled that he had entered Congress as part of the 1994 Republican class dedicated to cutting federal spending.

“We came wanting to sell buildings and control spending,” he said. ”Now here we are being in charge 11 years later and we’re too comfortable borrowing money.”

To him, borrowing to pay for Katrina and the Iraq war is the equivalent to passing along a tax increase to future taxpayers who will have to pay off the debt.

“I think borrowing money to solve each problem is not fair to future generations,” Graham said.

DeMint added, “Congress has shown us time and time again that we’re very good at overreacting after a crisis and very poor at solving a problem before it gets here.”
Contributing: Greg Wright, GNS