House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price, R-Ga., briefly previewed his upcoming budget proposal on Saturday during the Conservative Political Action Conference.
When asked by the Washington Examiner about his upcoming budget, Price said, “We’re going to build on the success that we’ve had in the past, which is to pass a budget that actually gets to balance and demonstrate how you get this economy rolling again.”
Improving the finances of entitlement programs is not off the table. “We believe that it’s imperative that we reform, strengthen, save and secure Medicare and Medicaid, and we’ll lay out the pathway for being able to do that,” Price said. As of 2014, Medicare and Medicaid combined take up over one-quarter of federal spending, and their share is expected to grow. By 2050, one of every three dollars spent by the federal government will go to major health care programs, as projected by the Congressional Budget Office.
Whatever budget Price rolls out is sure to receive resistance from President Obama. “The president doesn’t believe that we have a spending problem, doesn’t believe we have a debt problem,” Price said. Federal debt held by the public was 74 percent of GDP in 2014, a level not seen since the country was still recovering from World War II in 1949. Federal spending has also not yet returned to pre-recession levels. Price added, “What we’ve got to do is have the people recognize and appreciate the challenge that we have from the spending and debt standpoint, and demand of our Democratic colleagues to address the issue.”
Price also stressed the importance of reforming regulations. While speaking on a CPAC panel, Price said regulations cost the economy $1.8 trillion a year, or about 10 percent of the entire economy. That’s more than the federal government collects in individual income tax revenue. Price said to expect “a very robust action on the regulatory oppression that’s occurring. We need to make sure that this federal government is not harming people with regulations, and right now they are.”
Part of regulatory reform may involve sending some federal powers back to the states. “We’ve embraced the concept of federalism. We believe it’s important to identify what the federal government ought to be doing and what it ought not be doing. And those things that it ought not be doing we ought to be devolving back to the states.”
Price said tax reform and energy policy changes would also be included in the budget, but that these issues would fall under the jurisdiction of other committees.
