|
 Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi's plan, like the House
of Representatives plan, has little to no chance of becoming law as
is. Instead, both mark the onset of the annual congressional budget
battle and a test of Republicans' ability to get things done since
winning control of both houses of Congress for the first time since
2006.
Enzi's spending blueprint proposes $5.1 trillion in spending cuts
and interest savings over 10 years, compared with $5.5 trillion in
the House Republican budget released on Tuesday.
The Senate version would achieve a budget surplus a year later, in
2025, and assumes nearly $1 trillion in revenue from some expiring
tax breaks that have routinely been renewed.
Like the House budget, Enzi's plan gets the bulk of its savings from
repealing the Affordable Care Act, Democratic President Barack
Obama's signature healthcare reform law, and by cutting welfare
programs and other federal benefits.
 The Senate version maintains statutory caps on the core defense
budget and seeks to make it very difficult to add money to an
off-budget war funding account. That puts it in direct conflict with
the House's plan to boost defense spending by adding $36 billion to
the fiscal 2016 war operations budget.
The Senate budget calls for a mechanism that would allow lawmakers
to seek other savings so they can divert more money to both defense
and domestic discretionary programs.
In a speech in Cleveland on Wednesday, Obama slammed Republicans'
latest budget plans, saying that boosting funding for research,
education and infrastructure would be better for economic growth
than the tax cuts Republicans envision.
“Republicans in Congress have put forward the same proposals year
after year after year regardless of the realities of the economy,”
Obama said.
Both Republican budgets have drawn criticism from defense hawks who
want to match Obama's $612 billion Pentagon and warfighting request.
A clash with fiscal conservatives in both chambers who want to
adhere to the caps could threaten passage.
[to top of second column] |
"As I have made clear, I will not support a budget resolution that
sets defense spending at sequestration levels," Senator John McCain,
a Republican who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee,
said on Wednesday. "Doing so would be a recipe for disaster for
America’s national security."
If the House and Senate cannot reach a budget compromise,
Republicans would lose a rare opportunity to use a procedural tool
to attach legislation to repeal or replace Obamacare and pass it
with a simple majority in the Senate, which is controlled by
Republicans 54-46, following the November congressional elections.
Both chambers have included budget language for this purpose, and
new healthcare legislation could gain momentum if the Supreme Court
strikes a blow this year to Obamacare.
Enzi's plan also declines to adopt the House prescription to turn
Medicare into a system of private insurance subsidies. It wrings
some $430 billion from the program through 2025 by adopting the
Obama's Medicare savings goals.
(Reporting by David Lawder, with Roberta Rampton in Cleveland;
Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Leslie Adler)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
