The new Republican majority in Congress is gearing up for what’s sure to be a bruising and contentious spending battle this year, beginning with the unveiling of the House and Senate Budget Committee’s GOP blueprint this week.
Committee chair Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) and his House counterpart, Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), are committed to putting the government on a 10-year glide path to a balanced budget. That could put them, however, on a collision course with conservatives in their own party as well as with Democrats who oppose sharp cuts in domestic programs. All of this comes at a time when the economy has been on the upturn and the budget deficit has been tamed for the time being.
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Republicans appear determined to cut spending on such programs as Medicaid and food stamps by converting the social safety net programs to block grants to the states. The GOP has attempted these and other measures before only to encounter opposition from the Democrats and President Obama.
This year should be no different.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, on Sunday urged the GOP to work with him and congressional Democrats on a budget that “represents the needs of the American middle class and not just the wealthiest and most powerful people.”
Sanders, a far-left leading spokesperson for the Democrats on the committee, said top priorities should include rebuilding infrastructure, addressing student debt, raising the minimum wage, reforming the tax code and preventing cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
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“I hope very much my Republican colleagues will not release a document that stands for the Robin Hood principle in reverse,” he said. He added that Democrats would not go along with block granting Medicaid and food stamps and “mindless austerity” by preserving spending cuts in domestic and military programs.
There are dozens of technical issues to be resolved around spending and tax revenue projections that may be baffling to the average American. But these would have an enormous impact on the ultimate success or failure of the GOP fiscal strategy.
President Obama in early February unveiled a $4 trillion budget plan. It would lift spending caps and raise taxes to make way for major increases in programs and tax breaks for the middle class, increased defense spending, and other initiatives that would add $6 trillion to the national debt in the coming decade.
Much of what he proposed was dismissed as “wishful thinking” or “dead on arrival” on Capitol Hill. Now it is the Republicans' turn to put down their budget markers and see how far they can get with it – in both dealing with the White House and Democrats and reconciling feuding elements of their own party.