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GOP to Map Conservative Vision in Budget Plan
Sunday, March 15, 2015 10:48 PM
By: Greg Richter
Republicans this week will get a chance to present their own budget for the president's signature for the first time since 2005.
With control of both the House and Senate, the GOP aims to balance the budget by cutting federal spending as well as challenge some of President Barack Obama's legislation, including rolling back parts of the Affordable Care Act.
If Republicans in the House and Senate are able to agree on a budget, they can use a process known as reconciliation to leave Democrats out of the picture. Bills typically require a 60-vote majority in the Senate, but Republicans hold only 54 seats, making reconciliation a vital strategy since reconciliation requires only a 51-vote majority.
House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price of Georgia and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi of Wyoming are expected to announce separate bills this week, then will be charged with hammering out an agreement.
If the GOP can't come to terms, however, reconciliation would be out the window, and Republicans would need their Democrat counterparts to help pass a budget.
If Republicans don't pass a budget, "they will get nothing else for the rest of the year," former Democratic budget aide Stan Collender told The Wall Street Journal.
"The GOP budget should balance and should be passed," the Journal quoted Wyoming Republican Sen. John Barrasso as saying.
Republicans also hope to use reconciliation to pass alternatives to Obamacare. Democrats used the procedure to pass the Affordable Care Act in the first place.
Obama proposed his own budget in February, but it called for $1.5 trillion in tax hikes over 10 years and would increase the deficit. Republicans want to eliminate the deficit in 10 years by keeping across-the-board cuts from 2011 that would allow all spending, including on defense, to rise only 0.2 percent per year.
Obama has said he would veto levels that low.
Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Coker said first things first, the Journal reported.
"The thinking today is: Let’s pass a budget that lays out our aspirational goals over the next decade," Corker said. Spending levels can wait for tomorrow, he said.
"Let’s go through step one, and know that step two is coming," Corker said.
Republicans would have to cut spending by $5 trillion over 10 years to meet their goals, the Journal said. The want to put Medicaid and food stamps in control of the states, which they believe will be able to better control costs.
The Hill warns that Republicans do face challenges with their budget.
First, defense hawks such as Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas, want to end caps on defense spending left over from sequestration. But Enzi maintains such changes cannot be made in the budget, and must be part of separate legislation.
Then there's the balanced budget. Senate Republicans want it spread over 10 years, while their House counterparts want a shorter time frame. Either way, a balanced budget is rare thing to achieve. The only time the budget has been balanced since 1970 was during the closing years of the Clinton administration.
Another possible wrench thrown into the works will be the 2016 presidential and Senate elections, The Hill said. GOP Sens. Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham are likely to run for president, and their votes could be affected. And 24 Republican senators face re-election in possible tight races.
Radio host Hugh Hewitt warned in a Washington Examiner column on Sunday that the budge will be a national security nightmare since it keeps the sequestration caps.
"Congressional conservatives and Republicans generally love to quote Churchill, but they ought to do more than quote him, they ought to read his speeches from the '30s in which he lambasted the Front Bench in Parliament for neglecting all branches of the military," Hewitt wrote.
Meanwhile, Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips told National Journal that if Republicans don't use their new majority to cut spending and regulation, they might not hold power long.
"They failed miserably the last time they had the Congress, and they've been given a second chance in a relatively short period of time," Phillips said.
