In 'New American Congress,' Same Old GOP Dysfunction on Budget
Politico – GOP fiscal, defense hawks square off over budget
House Republican leaders are alarmed that they'll be unable to corral a majority to pass a budget in the coming weeks, a failure that would cast serious doubts about the ability of the new GOP-controlled Congress to advance its agenda and likely dash hopes of overhauling the Tax Code this year. As budget season kicks off in earnest this week, defense hawks are clashing with fiscal hard-liners over military spending, Republicans are scaling back their deficit reduction targets…
In the House, Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana are stuck between the budget-cutting demands of conservatives and the desire of defense hawks to provide the military with more robust funding.
The Hill – Senate GOP budget to break with Paul Ryan's blueprints
Senate Republicans will not include detailed plans to overhaul entitlement programs when they unveil their first budget in nearly a decade this week, according to GOP sources. The decision would break from Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) House budgets from recent years, which Democrats used to pound Republican candidates in the 2012 and 2014 elections.
The Senate GOP blueprint will not propose reforming Social Security, the political third rail that Ryan also avoided as former chairman of the House Budget Committee. "From the standpoint of a budget, the less words of the English language you use, the better off you are," said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a senior member of the Budget panel.
VOX – Senate Republicans are abandoning Paul Ryan's budget
What do Senate Republicans want? "Less words" in a new budget.
Senate Republicans want to move forward a more politically palatable budget — a plan that will be intentionally light on words and heavy on numbers…The Hill reported Sunday that top Republicans, like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and budget committee member Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), want to move forward with a Medicare and Medicaid budget plan that sets spending targets — but doesn't define how, exactly, the party would cut the program to get there.
WAMU 88.5 – Senate Republican On Budget: 'It's Never Easy When You're Talking About Money'
You may remember the controversial Ryan Budget. It was offered by former vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, the former chair of the House Budget Committee…But that wasn't good enough for Enzi.
"You know, one of the problems I've had with budgets that I've looked at is that they use a lot of gimmicks," he says.
Enzi says Ryan's budget was misleading because it called for the repeal of so-called Obamacare but applied savings from the health law towards deficit reduction. Enzi's mum on the details of his proposal…
New York Times – Chasm Grows Within G.O.P. Over Spending
The congressional push this week to secure the first Republican budget plan in nearly a decade is revealing a chasm between fiscal hawks determined to maintain strict spending caps and defense hawks who are threatening to derail any budget that does not ensure an increase for the military.
"This is a war within the Republican Party," said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who has vowed to oppose a final budget that does not ensure more military spending. "You can shade it any way you want, but this is war."