The Senate on Tuesday adopted a GOP budget that paves the way for an assault on President Barack Obama’s health care law this summer and a partisan showdown over spending bills this fall.
The Senate passed the nonbinding measure by a nearly party-line 51-48 vote. The House adopted it last week.
The measure sets a potential path for a balanced budget within a decade. It promises to cut domestic agencies and safety net programs like Medicaid and food stamps, reduce transportation spending and student aid and curb tax breaks for the poor.
Republicans, however, don’t plan to adhere to most of its cuts in follow-up legislation. And in the near term the GOP plan promises a $38 billion, 7 percent increase for the Pentagon.
It also won’t result in an immediate showdown with the White House. As Congress’ plan for spending, it is not subject to Obama’s signature — or likelier, veto.
What the bill will do is set up a debate this summer that would permit Republicans to finally pass legislation to repeal Obama’s health care law. That’s because Senate Democrats would be unable to filibuster the repeal bill under fast-track budget rules. Obama is certain to veto it, but its passage alone would fulfill a longstanding GOP promise.
Republicans have no plans to follow up the budget document’s call for other spending cuts with binding legislation that would impose many of the reductions it envisions.
The real fight will come later this year, as Congress works through the 12 annual spending bills setting agency operating budgets. Republicans have skirted budget rules and are trying to award the Pentagon a 7 percent budget hike while keeping domestic programs frozen at current levels.
Obama and his Democratic allies in the Senate say they will block those budget moves and are calling for a negotiation that would replace automatic budget cuts known as sequestration with longer-term substitute cuts and revenues from closing tax loopholes. Republican leaders like House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio say tax increases are out of the question.
Under Washington’s arcane budget process, lawmakers first adopt a budget that’s essentially a visionary document that sets goals that politicians are often unwilling to pursue. The GOP document also lacks specifics about which programs would be cut, insulating the Senate’s large crop of vulnerable incumbents from taking a more politically dangerous vote.
The measure manages to chart a path toward a balanced budget without new taxes, though it assumes Republicans will find about $1 trillion over 10 years to replace so0-called “Obamacare” taxes like the 3.8 percent surcharge on investment income paid by upper-bracket earners. It also retains large Obamacare cuts to health care providers such as Medicare Advantage plans even though Republicans criticized the cuts in past campaigns.
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