House GOP moves to cut safety net, bolster military

WASHINGTON – House Republicans released a 2016 spending blueprint Tuesday that seeks to fulfill the GOP goal of balancing the budget in 10 years, but does so by slashing Medicare and other safety net programs while dramatically boosting military spending.

The proposed annual budget, at $3.8 trillion, promises to lower taxes and revisits well-worn Republican ideas for shrinking government, including its signature proposal for overhauling Medicare with a voucherlike private insurance option.

What’s new this year is the determination by Republicans to bolster Pentagon spending above President Barack Obama’s proposed level.

Republicans mostly agree on wanting to rescue the Pentagon from the looming “sequester” cuts – the deep reductions that Congress reluctantly agreed to four years ago as part of a deal to avoid defaulting on the nation’s debt.

But how to prevent those reductions from hindering the military while still adhering to strict overall spending limits sought by fiscal conservatives remains a challenge, making Republicans’ ability to pass a budget through Congress look uncertain.

So far, it does not appear that Senate Republicans, who are expected to unveil their own budget plan today, are ready to back the blueprint of their House colleagues. Key differences remain over how deeply to cut social-welfare programs and where to find the money to offset sequester cuts for the Pentagon.

“We do not rely on gimmicks or creative accounting tricks to balance our budget,” said House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga. “We do it the old-fashioned way – we make sure the programs we fund serve the priorities of the American people in a more efficient and effective manner, and reduce spending where that is not the case.”

Congressional budget proposals do not carry the force of law, but serve as important tools in guiding the coming debate over government spending.

With GOP majorities now in the Senate and the House, the budget process also opens the door for a procedural maneuver that could allow Congress to approve related bills with a simple majority vote, avoiding Democratic filibusters in the Senate. That could be the GOP’s best chance to push through controversial bills to confront President Obama on such issues as health care.

Under the House GOP plan, military funds would be supplemented by a separate account used for overseas contingency operations, currently used mostly to fight terrorism.

Some conservative Republicans, though, oppose that approach. The Senate GOP is likely to recommend establishing a new type of reserve fund that could be used to increase funds for the military by reducing spending elsewhere.