House GOP Budget A Cruel Disaster

The House Republican budget released today would slash Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. It would facilitate the repeal of Dodd-Frank. It is based on faulty math and would be a “budget buster.” Simply put, this budget is a cruel disaster.

The House Republican budget would cut more than $200 billion over the next decade to mandatory spending programs, including Medicare and Social Security.

New York Times: “The budget calls for a $621.5 billion national defense budget for 2018 and $511 billon for nondefense spending. It also calls for at least $203 billion in cuts over a decade in ‘mandatory’ spending on programs such as Medicare and Social Security.”

 

The House Republican budget would prohibit Social Security Disability Insurance recipients from collecting unemployment benefits.

CNBC: “Although the House budget does not address Social Security retirement, it does call for changes to the disability insurance program, such as barring recipients from also collecting unemployment benefits.”

 

The House Republican budget would cut nearly $500 billion from Medicare, which Trump promised not to touch, and change it to a voucher-like program.

Washington Post: “Unlike Trump’s budget, the House proposal cuts into Medicare and Social Security — entitlement programs that the president has pledged to preserve.”

Bloomberg: “While the president vowed not to touch Medicare for senior citizens, the House budget assumes Congress will make $487 billion in future cuts.”

Associated Press: “Medicare is the second-largest mandatory program after Social Security, and the House GOP plan again proposes to turn Medicare into a voucher-like program in which future retirees would receive a fixed benefit to purchase health insurance on the open market.”

 

The House Republican budget would facilitate approval of a partial repeal of Dodd-Frank.

Bloomberg: “The proposal also would facilitate approval of a partial repeal of the Dodd-Frank financial law, as well as changes to medical malpractice tort law, and would help enact cuts to food stamps, among other policies.”

 

In keeping with the goals of their disastrous health care repeal, the House Republican budget would slash Medicaid and the ACA by $1.5 trillion over the next decade.

Associated Press: “It would do so by slashing $5.4 trillion over the coming decade, including almost $500 billion from Medicare, $1.5 trillion from Medicaid and the Obama health law, along with enormous cuts to benefits such as federal employee pensions, food stamps, and tax credits for the working poor.”

 

The House Republican budget would transform Medicaid largely into a block grant and add new work requirements for able-bodied adults receiving benefits.

CNN: “The House GOP plan showcases how policy proposals that many in the party have pushed for years could be attainable with Republican control of the White House and Congress. The resolution lays out structural changes to Medicaid, transforming the program largely into a block grant for states to administer and adding work requirement for able bodied adults receiving benefits.”

 

The House Republican budget assumed more than $200 billion in deficit reduction from passing the House bill to repeal and replace the ACA.

CNBC: “In fact, the budget ran into its first roadblock even before it was officially released Tuesday. The proposal assumes $204 billion in deficit reduction over a decade from the passage of the House bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. But the bill appeared to die in the Senate on Monday evening after Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas came out against it.”

 

The House Republican budget would cut all agencies and departments by a total of $5 billion, except for defense, which would see an increase higher than Trump’s budget request.

Bloomberg: “House Republicans on Tuesday are unveiling a 2018 budget that ignores Trump’s request for $54 billion in cuts to departments and agencies such as State and the National Institutes of Health. Instead, spending outside of defense would be reduced by $5 billion. The GOP proposal would boost funding for the nation’s defense by $72 billion, $18 billion more than Trump sought.”

 

The House Republican budget would impose new work requirements for SNAP recipients and cut tax credits for the working poor.

Associated Press: “It would do so by slashing $5.4 trillion over the coming decade, including almost $500 billion from Medicare, $1.5 trillion from Medicaid and the Obama health law, along with enormous cuts to benefits such as federal employee pensions, food stamps, and tax credits for the working poor.”

CNBC: “The House proposal mirrors the White House budget in imposing new work requirements for programs like food stamps.”

 

The House Republican budget includes funding for Trump’s proposed border wall and would allow for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

CNBC: “The proposal calls for $621 billion in defense spending in fiscal 2018, including money for President Donald Trump's signature border wall.”

Bloomberg: “Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is projected to raise $1.8 billion, just as in the Trump budget proposal. Allowing drilling there would require a change in the law — one repeatedly blocked on Capitol Hill amid concerns about oil exploration in the refuge threatening caribou, polar bears and other wildlife in the region.” 

 

Overall, the House Republican budget would increase spending above current caps, making the proposal a sure “budget buster”.

Associated Press: “But in the immediate future the GOP measure is a budget buster.”

Associated Press: “All told, the GOP plan would spend about $67 billion more in the upcoming annual appropriations bills than would be allowed under harsh spending limits set by a failed 2011 budget and debt agreement, and pads war accounts by $10 billion.”

 

Still ignoring the CBO, the House Republican budget undercuts Trump’s GDP projections by assuming just 2.6 percent economic growth instead of 3 percent, as promised by the White House.

Washington Post: ‘The House plan also makes a less-rosy economic growth assumption of 2.6 percent versus the 3 percent eyed by the Trump administration. Both, however, exceed the 1.9 percent figure used by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office in its most recent economic estimates.”