The budget gambit Democrats are embracing to fast-track President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic aid plan will trigger billions of dollars in cuts to critical programs. Top Democrats are already shrugging off the threat, insistent that Congress will once again act in time to head off the slashing to programs like Medicare and farm subsidies — a byproduct of using the reconciliation process. But in that high-stakes trust fall, Democrats will be relying on the Senate Republicans they are now spurning. The threat stems from limitations enacted in 2010 under pay-as-you-go rules, which require Congress to offset the cost of each piece of legislation. At best, Republicans could use their votes to avert the impending cliff as leverage to notch GOP policy wins in negotiations later this year. At worst, they could let the cuts set in as punishment to Democrats for using the reconciliation tool to negate GOP input as the majority party pushes to advance Biden’s package with just 51 votes in the Senate...MORE
Not to worry. The R's will go along with the D's to avoid budget cuts. They always do...
Both parties have repeatedly voted to waive the rule and avoid the cuts with other major reconciliation packages. Democrats joined Republicans to avert $150 billion in cuts that would have been prompted by the 2017 tax overhaul, including a $25 billion chunk from Medicare. The Congressional Budget Office at the time determined that certain programs, like the Public Health and Prevention Fund under Obamacare, would have been virtually wiped out.
Lawmakers similarly stopped any slicing when it came to Obama-era stimulus legislation and multiple tax cut packages under George W. Bush.
No comments:
Post a Comment