A budget these guys would have heartily approved.
House Republicans overcame their internal dispute between defense hawks and deficit hawks and passed a budget resolution Wednesday. The vote was 228-199. No Democrats voted for it; 17 Republicans opposed it. Earlier in the day, the House rejected alternative budgets from the liberal Congressional Progressive Caucus and Congressional Black Caucus as well as the ultra-right-wing Republican Study Committee.
The Republican budget would cut $5.5 trillion over a decade and, Republicans claim, come into balance in nine years. Balanced, it should surprise nobody, on the backs of those Americans who can least afford it. The budget would cut food stamps, educational Pell Grants, Medicaid, deductions for education and the child tax credit. But the amounts are unspecified. The budget resolution also would end the Affordable Care Act.
Democrats argued that the budget would not come close to being in balance and that Republicans are being duplicitous by, among other things, including revenue from the ACA that would be abolished. The repeal of the ACA would generate $2 trillion of those $5.5 trillion in cuts, Republicans say.
Meanwhile, new tax breaks would be provided to the wealthy.
Defense spending, however, would be increased $40 billion above what is allowed under the sequester agreement. That was done by calling the extra money "emergency spending." In addition, the resolution would boost budget authority for Overseas Contingency Operations to $96 billion. That total must be offset to the tune of $20 billion, requiring cuts from non-defense parts of the budget. This maneuver was part of a deal between defense hawks and deficit hawks. For years, the OCO has been used to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (as well as other conflicts) without dipping into the base Pentagon budget.
The Senate is working on its own version. When agreed upon by both houses, budget resolutions bind Congress but are not law and are not sent on to the president for his approval.