House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Tuesday he believes Democrats will support a broad budget and debt ceiling bill that also reforms the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program.
“I think our members will be relatively comfortable with it,” Hoyer told reporters after meeting with House Democrats earlier in the morning. The accord, he said, received a “relatively positive reception.”
Democrats are critical to passing the budget deal because Republicans are unlikely to win the support of dozens of its most conservative members. The deal was negotiated in part by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who collaborated with Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, Senate leaders and President Obama.
Democrats will likely be encouraged to vote for the deal in light of support from the White House.
“The last seven years, we’ve gone from crisis to recovery and we’re on the verge of being able to have a genuine economic resurgence here,” Vice President Joe Biden said on Tuesday. “And what we’ve put together is a good deal. No one got everything they wanted. But it will last for two years and it will prevent us from lurching from crisis to crisis.”
The deal would reform SSDI in part by increasing scrutiny in order to reduce fraudulent claims, which are believed to cost taxpayers more than a billion dollars. The agreement would also help make the program solvent by shifting money to it from other parts of the budget. The program faces a 20 percent cut in 2016 because it is running out of money, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has warned.
“Democrats are supportive of making sure there is not fraud in the system,” Hoyer said. “The question is, how do you identify what is fraud and what is not?”
The budget deal suspends the debt ceiling until March 2017 and increases spending beyond the mandatory spending caps by $80 billion over two years. The deal also eliminates a looming increase in Medicare deductibles and Part B premiums scheduled to hit seniors in 2016.
Hoyer said he’ll likely back the deal, even though he rejected a similar accord authored in 2013 by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., that lifted budget caps for two years.
Hoyer said he can support the current deal because “it’s a little broader reach here,” with the addition of helping to shore up SSDI and stopping the Medicare cost increases.
