House panel works into the night on GOP budget
Plan would begin to clear a path for tax code overhaul.
WASHINGTON — A GOP-controlled House panel on Wednesday worked into the night on a Republican fiscal plan that probably won’t deliver on its promises to balance the budget, but would begin to clear a path for a GOP effort to overhaul the tax code this fall.
The plan proposes deep cuts to safety net programs like Medicaid and food stamps and reprises a controversial Medicare plan strongly opposed by President Donald Trump — though Republicans plan to try to deliver on a small fraction of the cuts.
Instead, to most Republicans on Capitol Hill, the most important element of the plan is the procedural pathway it would clear to allow Republicans to pass their top priority — an overhaul of the tax code — later this year without fear of a blockade by Senate Democrats. Passing a budget through Congress is the only way to get a GOP-only tax plan enacted this year.
Republicans argue that growing deficits and debt are part of the reason for slow economic growth and that big benefit plans like Medicare and Medicaid need changes now to keep them from going broke for future generations.
“Both parties in Washington have failed to abide by a simple principle that all American families and small businesses do — that we must live within our means,” said Budget Chairman Diane Black, R-Tenn. “Balancing the budget requires us to make tough choices, but the consequences of inaction far outweigh any political risks we may face.”
But like the GOP’s health care repeal and replace efforts and its moribund hopes to boost infrastructure, the GOP budget outline faces opposition from both wings of the party. Republican conservatives want more of its proposed cuts to actually take effect in follow-up legislation, while moderates want to focus on tax reform instead of cuts to food stamps or federal employee pensions.
GOP leaders generally fear that adding spending cuts to tax reform would only make the tax code rewrite more difficult to pass.
The nonbinding GOP plan promises to cut more than $5 trillion from the budget over the coming decade, though Republicans only appear serious about enacting a relatively modest 10-year, $203 billion deficit cut over the same period through filibuster-proof follow-up legislation. Conservatives are pressing for larger cuts, including strict work requirements for food stamps, for instance.
But Democrats blasted the sweeping cuts in the plan. It revives a provocative proposal to turn Medicare into a voucher-like program for future retirees. Experts say that change would likely increase costs for beneficiaries and deny them the coverage guarantees of Medicare.
Republicans easily rejected Democratic attempts to protect the Obama health law, restore Medicaid, and increase spending for domestic programs renewed by Congress each year.
The panel is stocked with hard-core conservatives, some of whom said the measure is too loose on spending. Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., faulted it for a $28 billion increase above Trump’s budget for defense and for rejecting most of Trump’s proposed $54 billion cut to domestic programs for next year.
While exempting Social Security, veterans and defense, the plan proposes cuts across the rest of the budget to turn this year’s projected $700 billion-or-so deficit into a tiny $9 billion surplus by 2027. It would do so by slashing $5.4 trillion over the coming decade, including almost $500 billion from Medicare and $1.5 trillion from Medicaid and the Obama-era health law. The GOP plan also proposes a 10-year, $150 billion cut to food stamps.