House Republicans said they would aim to balance the budget and repeal Obamacare in a preview of their budget proposal released Monday.
Tom Price, the Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee, released a video of himself and other Republicans on the committee offering some hints of their plans Monday afternoon. Both House and Senate Republicans will introduce broad plans for taxes and spending this week ahead of an April 15 deadline for Congress to vote on a budget resolution.
“First and foremost, our plan balances the budget,” says Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Ind., in the video.
Price and his Senate counterpart, Mike Enzi of Wyoming, have said that they will aim for a balanced budget in 10 years or earlier. Price is set to announce his proposal Tuesday morning, while Enzi announced Monday that the Senate Budget Committee will meet to draft its budget on Wednesday.
The fiscal 2014 deficit was $483 billion, although that shortfall is expected to increase in the later years of the 10-year budget window.
Last year, Price’s predecessor, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, was able to balance the budget in the 10th year of its projections, but only by assuming that the reforms the plan implemented would accelerate economic growth and thereby boost tax receipts.
As for Obamacare, Rep. Diane Black of Tennessee said in the preview that the plan “repeals all of Obamacare.”
“We stop the raid on Medicare and keep the promise to today’s seniors and future generations by giving more choices,” Black said, indicating that House Republicans will not shy away from large-scale reforms to the healthcare system for seniors. Converting Medicare to a model in which seniors receive subsidies to purchase private plans or traditional Medicare was a centerpiece of the budget proposals authored by Ryan.
One new feature of Price’s proposals will be a focus on federalism, or the prioritization of lower-level governments over the federal government. “Our budget will respect the principle of federalism by returning authority to state and local leaders so they have the flexibility to serve their unique communities,” said Rep. Bruce Westerman of Arkansas. Those authorities could include programs relating to antipoverty spending, although Westerman offered no further details.
One major question relating to the GOP proposals is how they will treat the spending caps on national defense that many hawks in the party view as too limiting on the country’s military capabilities. Monday’s preview contained no clues as to how Price would balance the priorities of defense hawks and deficit slashers.
“Our country faces massive challenges, but with positive solutions like these we will overcome them and create an America that is more secure, stronger, and full of opportunity,” Price said in the preview.
