House GOP Budget Sets Stage For Showdown With The President
House Republicans unveiled a draft budget Tuesday designed to bring government spending in line with revenues over the next decade, while making significant cuts to safety net programs such as Medicaid and food stamps.
The plan is non-binding, but sets the stage for a political showdown between the new, all-Republican Congress and President Obama.
"Our balanced budget for a stronger America saves $5.5 trillion, gets to balance within 10 years, without raising taxes," said House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price, R-Ga. "The president's response in his budget: more taxes, more spending, more borrowing, more debt, more stagnant growth."
The GOP-controlled House has adopted similar budgets in previous years with little effect. This year's effort could go further, now that the Senate is in Republican hands for the first time in eight years.
If the two chambers can agree on a budget, it would open the door for the procedural tactic known as reconciliation, which prevents Senate Democrats from mounting a filibuster. Price said that gives Republicans "an opportunity to pass a piece of legislation out of the House and out of the Senate with just 51 votes in the United States Senate and put it on the president's desk — to put forward good policy and to provide a contrast for the American people to see who's trying to solve these challenges and who might be standing in the way."
The Republican House budget calls for a repeal of the president's signature health care law. It would also replace Medicare for those 56 and younger — future retirees — with a voucher-like system of subsidies that beneficiaries could use to shop for private insurance.
"What we're seeing right now is a failure to invest in education and infrastructure and research and national defense," Obama said about the House Republicans' budget Tuesday.
President Obama was quick to blast the GOP plan for what he sees as misguided austerity. "What we're seeing right now is a failure to invest in education and infrastructure and research and national defense," Obama said during a photo opp with Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny. "All the things that we need to grow, to create jobs, to stay at the forefront of innovation and to keep our country safe."
While the president's own budget released last month calls for increased taxes on the wealthy to help offset the cost of higher spending, the House Republican plan includes no additional taxes. "Every dollar that's taken for taxes or that's taken to borrow money is a dollar that can't be spent to buy a car, to pay the rent, to send a child to college or to technical school, to buy a house, to expand a business or grow a business, create jobs," Price said. "We think there's a better way."
The GOP budget does assume an increase in tax revenue, though, through faster economic growth. "We believe in the American people and we believe in growth," Price said.
The House budget officially maintains the limits on both domestic and military spending set by the Budget Control Act of 2011. But it adds tens of billions of dollars to a war-fighting fund that's not subject to the caps. "We recognize the imperative of providing for our military men and women and their families the resources that are needed to protect our national security and to respect their service," Price said.
In addition to highlighting differences with the president, the congressional budget process may also expose fault lines within the Republican Party. Defense hawks, for example, want to explicitly lift the cap on military spending, while deficit hawks are eager to hold the line. Republican senators running for re-election in blue and purple states next year may also be reluctant to embrace big changes in Medicare.
The Senate Budget Committee is due to begin marking up its version of a budget on Wednesday.
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Transcript
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
We begin this hour on Capitol Hill where House Republicans unveiled their version of a budget for the coming year. The plan calls for significant cuts to food stamps and Medicaid along with a repeal of President Obama's signature Affordable Care Act. Here's House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CONGRESSMAN TOM PRICE: Our balanced budget for a stronger America saves $5.5 trillion, gets to balance within 10 years without raising taxes.
BLOCK: Senate Republicans will release their budget proposal tomorrow. Both plans are expected to present sharp contrasts to President Obama's spending priorities. And NPR's Scott Horsley joins us now to talk through some of this. Scott, we heard Congressman Tom Price talk about saving $5.5 trillion over the next decade. How did they get there?
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Melissa, this is a belt-tightening budget. House Republicans would slow the growth in a variety of safety net programs including food stamps and Medicaid. They'd also turned those programs over to the states to manage. And they're talking about replacing Medicare for future retirees - that is people who are 56 and younger - with a voucher type program those people could then use to buy private insurance. That's something that has been in House budgets for several years now. It's never really gone anywhere, but Democrats have used it as a political weapon.
BLOCK: Well, no surprise that the budget blueprint that the president came out with last month offers a very different version. What has he had to say about the Republicans' plan?
HORSLEY: Well, the president sees this as a case of misplaced austerity. He knows that deficits have already been shrinking rapidly. His own budget called for lifting the spending caps that were adopted several years ago so that the United States could increase both its military spending and its domestic spending by roughly equal amounts. He wants to invest more money in things like early childhood education, public works programs, free community college - all things that he says the Republican plan leaves out.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: What we're seeing right now is a failure to invest in education and infrastructure and research and national defense - all the things that we need to grow to create jobs, to stay at the forefront of innovation and to keep our country safe.
HORSLEY: One big question is going to be, what happens with defense spending? While the House budget does add tens of billions of dollars to an overseas war fighting fund, Obama argues any increase in defense spending should be matched with an equivalent boost in domestic programs.
BLOCK: Scott, help us out here 'cause these budgets are always referred to as nonbinding blueprints. Why do they matter?
HORSLEY: None of these budgets will automatically result in any changes to what the government collects in taxes or spends. That takes another signed piece of legislation to do that. Instead, what these budgets really are is political documents that help frame the tax and spending debate. They'll showcase differences between congressional Republicans and the White House. And when the Senate budget comes out tomorrow, we may also see division within the Republican ranks. There are defense hawks, for example, who want to see a more explicit increase in military spending. There are deficit hawks who want to hold the line on that and there are Republican senators up for reelection in blue and purple states who may be wary of endorsing big changes in Medicare.
BLOCK: And if the House and Senate can agree on a budget, Scott, what happens then?
HORSLEY: Well, that opens the door to a procedural tactic called reconciliation, which basically prevents Senate Democrats from filibustering. So, for example, Republicans could vote to repeal Obamacare with a simple majority. Now, the president would still have his veto pen. Reconciliation doesn't change that. But this does set the stage for a more explicit showdown between the White House and the Congress.
BLOCK: OK, NPR White House correspondent Scott Horsley. Scott, thanks.
HORSLEY: My pleasure. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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