Republicans can't meet their own budget target without cutting Medicare or Medicaid, budget office says
The House GOP has ordered the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicare and Medicaid funding, to cut $880 billion in a bill to advance Trump's agenda.
WASHINGTON — House Republicans can’t meet their own budget target that is necessary to pass President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda without making significant cuts to Medicare or Medicaid, the official budget scorekeeper confirmed Wednesday.
House Republicans adopted a budget blueprint last week that opens the door to pass Trump’s policy priorities on immigration, energy and taxes. It instructs the House Energy and Commerce Committee to cut spending under its jurisdiction by $880 billion.
The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan in-house think tank that referees the process, said that when Medicare is set aside, the total funding under the committee’s jurisdiction is $8.8 trillion over 10 years. Medicaid accounts for $8.2 trillion of that, or 93%.
When Medicare and Medicaid are excluded, the committee oversees a total of $581 billion in spending — much less than the $880 billion target — the CBO said. The letter outlining the figures was in response to a query by Reps. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., the ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Brendan Boyle, D-Pa. the ranking member of the Budget Committee.
That leaves Republicans in a deep predicament. The budget resolution, adopted by the slimmest of margins in the narrowly divided House, was the delicate product of negotiations among conservative hard-liners who demand steep spending cuts and swing-district GOP lawmakers who say they don’t want to slash funding for the health programs their constituents rely on.
Rating: 5