House Republicans propose budget with deep cuts

WASHINGTON — House Republicans called it streamlining, empowering states or “achieving sustainability.” They couched deep spending reductions in any number of gauzy euphemisms.

What they would not do Tuesday was call their budget plan, which slashes spending by $5.5 trillion over 10 years, a “cut.”

The 10-year blueprint for taxes and spending they formally unveiled would balance the federal budget, even promising a surplus by 2024, but only with the sort of sleights of hand that Republicans have so often derided.

The budget — the first since Republicans regained control of Congress this year — largely reflects the four previous versions written by Rep. Paul D. Ryan of Wis- consin when he was chairman of the Budget Committee. But this plan may fare better than Ryan’s since Senate Republicans will be under pressure to reach an accord.

“A budget is a moral document; it talks about where your values are,” said Rep. Rob Woodall, R-Ga., and a member of the Budget Committee. “We’ve never had the opportunity to partner with the Senate to provide real certainty.”

Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the committee’s ranking Democrat, saw it differently: “This takes budget quackery to a new level.”

Without relying on tax increases, budget writers were forced into contortions to bring the budget into balance while placating defense hawks clamoring for increased military spending. They added nearly $40 billion in “emergency” war funding to the defense budget for next year, raising military spending without technically breaking strict caps imposed by the 2011 Budget Control Act.

The plan contains more than $1 trillion in savings from unspecified cuts to programs like food stamps and welfare.

To make matters more complicated, the budget demands the full repeal of the Affordable Care Act, including the tax increases that finance the health-care law.

But the plan assumes the same level of federal revenue over the next 10 years that the Congressional Budget Office foresees with those tax increases in place — essentially counting $1 trillion of taxes that the same budget swears to forgo.

And still, it achieves balance only by counting $147 billion in “dynamic” economic growth spurred by the policies of the budget itself. In 2024, the budget would produce a $13 billion surplus, thanks in part to $53 billion in a projected “macroeconomic impact” generated by Republican policies. That surplus would grow to $33 billion in 2025, and so would the macroeconomic impact, to $83 billion.

“I don’t know anyone who believes we’re going to balance the budget in 10 years,” said Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo. “It’s all hooey.”