New GOP Congress, Same Destructive GOP Budget
Los Angeles Times – House GOP budget cuts Medicare, repeals Affordable Care Act
House Republicans released a 2016 spending blueprint Tuesday that fulfills the GOP goal of balancing the budget within 10 years, but only by slashing Medicare and other safety net programs, while dramatically boosting military spending.
House Republicans also revived their proposal to turn Medicare into a voucher-like private system by 2024, overhauling the popular senior healthcare program.
Reuters – US Republican budget offers deep cuts to end deficits in 2024
U.S. House Republicans on Tuesday unveiled a budget that seeks to eliminate deficits by 2024 through deep cuts to social safety net programs, domestic spending and another attempt at repealing "Obamacare" health reforms.
First on Republicans' cutting list is repealing the Affordable Care Act, Obama's signature health care law…He also would cut $913 billion in Medicaid spending by shifting it to a grant program to allow states to tailor the health care program for the poor. Price's plan would do the same for some other social safety net programs, including food stamps. Pell grants for college tuition would also shrink.
Price also recycles a controversial revamp of Medicare pioneered by his predecessor, Paul Ryan. It turns the fee-for-service health care program for seniors into a "premium-support" system of subsidies for private insurance, starting in 2024, affecting those born in 1959 or later.
Associated Press – GOP offers $3.8T budget that boosts defense, cuts food stamps, Medicaid
The latest plan by Republicans controlling the House also reprises sharp proposed cuts to the Medicaid program for the poor, food stamps and health care subsidies under so-called Obamacare.
Price is also replicating Ryan's approach to cutting Medicaid and food stamps by proposing to transform them from federal programs into wholly state-run programs that receive lump sum funding from the government. That approach makes it easier to cut these programs without saying how many people would be dropped or how their benefits would be cut.
National Journal – House GOP Wants to Give Pentagon a Boost
The fiscal 2016 spending blueprint unveiled by the House GOP Tuesday shifts money around to give a big cash boost to the military, even as the party's fiscal hawks and defense hawks are already drawing battle lines.
Price, a close ally of former Chairman Paul Ryan, borrowed many ideas from his predecessor…Like Ryan's budget, the new House GOP budget would replace ACA with "patient-centered health reform," although it isn't very specific about what that would entail.
The Hill – Cybersecurity not mentioned in House GOP budget
Cybersecurity received no mention in the House Republican budget released Tuesday, a stark contrast with President Obama's proposal to specifically increase funding for cyber defenses by $14 billion.
New York Times – House Republican Budget Overhauls Medicare and Repeals the Health Law
The House proposal leans heavily on the policy prescriptions that Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin outlined when he was budget chairman.
To placate advocates of the military who say strict budget caps are hurting national defense, the House budget adds "emergency" war spending through the "overseas contingency operations" account, which does not count against the spending limits.
The House budget would also repeal much of Mr. Obama's 2010 law regulating Wall Street financial firms. It would cut food stamps significantly, converting them into a "state flexibility fund" to be administered by state governments. And it would cut the size of Pell Grants, the popular federal financial aid program for higher education.
Huffington Post – Republicans Attack Wall Street Reform In Budget Plan
Republican lawmakers took aim at the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law Tuesday, unveiling a plan that would gut regulators' authority to manage the collapse of big banks and give Congress direct control of the U.S. consumer finance bureau's budget.
In addition to targeting resolution powers by banking regulators, the Republican budget plan also takes aim at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a new regulatory agency that serves to protect consumers from predatory loan practices by credit-card and mortgage servicing companies.
The American people have had enough of Republicans' old ideas that do new damage to seniors, children and families. It's time for them to stop stacking the deck against hardworking Americans, and join Democrats in providing bigger paychecks and better infrastructure for all.