House GOP budget plan
U.S. House Budget Chairman Tom Price, R-Roswell, released a budget proposal Tuesday that seeks $5.468 trillion in cuts over 10 years, compared with current policy.
Price’s proposal calls for a $20 billion increase in supplemental funding of the “Global War on Terror.”
He balances that with these proposed savings, according to GOP projections:
Obamacare (repealed) — $2.042 trillion
Medicaid and other health programs — $913 billion
Interest payments — $798 billion
Medicare — $148 billion
Social Security — $4 billion
Other mandatory spending (food stamps, welfare programs) — $1.064 trillion
Discretionary spending (agencies, including Pentagon) — $519 billion
Seizing his moment in the spotlight and testing his ability to placate the factions of the House Republican caucus, U.S. Rep. Tom Price of Roswell released the House GOP budget Tuesday.
The budget would reduce spending from current policy by $5.5 trillion over the next decade, mostly by cutting social programs, in order to produce a surplus in 2025.
Price attempted to thread a needle by increasing defense spending above what President Barack Obama proposed, but also securing a conservative priority by allowing the budget “reconciliation” process to be used to repeal the law known as Obamacare. Such a strategy, which was used to pass Obamacare, would elude a Senate Democratic filibuster and send a repeal to the president’s desk.
Price, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, and other Republicans talked about the contrast between their vision and Obama’s, whose budget proposal would never balance, increase spending on education and infrastructure, and not make big changes to entitlement programs.
Price proclaimed that the GOP budget is a vision of “real hope and real optimism and real compassion and real fairness, without Washington picking winners and losers.”
Democrats disagreed.
“It will mean the end of the current Medicare guarantee, and millions of seniors in nursing homes will be especially hurt by the irresponsible cuts to Medicaid,” said Rep. Hank Johnson, a Lithonia Democrat.
Johnson added that across-the-board cuts that first took effect in 2013 through “sequestration must give way to a more sensible, fact-based budget process.”
The budget is essentially a statement of priorities not expected to become law, but it does dictate how much appropriators can spend and reconciliation can be used to move the Senate at a time when Democrats are filibustering pretty much everything.
Without any Democrats on their side, House Republicans can lose no more than 27 votes — assuming all members vote — and a wide-ranging document such as this can provide plenty of reasons to say no.
The biggest balancing act came on defense spending. Last month, 70 House Republicans — including Reps. Austin Scott of Tifton, Jody Hice of Monroe and Buddy Carter of Pooler — wrote a letter to Speaker John Boehner demanding defense funding at higher levels next year than Obama's plan, which had already requested more than existing spending caps.
Carter immediately backed the budget in a statement, saying it “provides real solutions and is a plan to grow our economy, protect Georgia’s families and create a better America for our children and grandchildren.”
Price’s budget officially sticks with the defense cap next year while increasing spending in a separate war account for the Pentagon and State Department. After that, it breaks the “sequestration” caps, spending $22 billion more on defense than Obama proposes over the next five years and $151 billion more over the next decade. It more than offsets defense increases with cuts to other programs such as Pell Grants.
The question is whether conservatives will challenge the plan. Influential Rep. Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, told reporters that the Obamacare repeal plan would be a "motivating reason for I think many of us to lean toward supporting the budget."
Rep. Barry Loudermilk, a Cassville Republican who has bucked House GOP leaders at times this year, did not commit to Price’s plan in a statement but did praise it as taking “a proactive approach toward realigning our national budget priorities and safeguarding hard earned taxpayers’ money.”
Aside from defense, the Price budget mirrors much of the fiscal conservative wish list from previous years under Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. It would convert Medicare into a voucher-type program for future beneficiaries. It would convert Medicaid into a block grant program to the states, with a similar future envisioned for the food stamp program.
It would repeal the law known as Obamacare. It would tear down portions of the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory law.
But while predicting long-term problems with Social Security, the budget once again dodges on the issue, calling for a bipartisan commission to study it. Social Security trustees predict the disability insurance program will be insolvent by late next year, and the same will happen to the old-age fund by 2033.
Meanwhile, the budget relies on Congressional Budget Office projections for tax revenue under current policy. That includes, for example, the expiration of a pile of temporary tax breaks that are typically renewed.
In a news conference, Price said the tax revenue projections were likely too low if Republicans’ plans go through.
“The tax reform that we’ve identified and proposals we’ve put forward, we believe, will result in a significant increase in growth,” Price said.
Price passed on a run for the U.S. Senate in order to take over this spot from Ryan, who now runs the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, and the even-keeled orthopedic surgeon lacks his predecessor’s star power.
While Ryan made the controversial Medicare changes a big part of the Republican brand, Price will have the new and daunting goal of aligning the House vision with that of the Senate, which is due to release a different budget Wednesday. Though they are both now under Republican control, the two chambers have often been at odds so far this year.
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