Republicans Release Budget Plan. It's A Cookbook!
Message: We care. About billionaires getting tax cuts. You? You're expendable, but nutritious.
Joe Biden always liked to say that his dad had a saying: “Don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value.” Leaving aside whether anyone’s dad ever talked like that, ever (we have no record of Biden’s dad proposing national budgets), it’s certainly a useful way of contrasting what matters to Republicans and Democrats. Take, for example, the budget resolution released yesterday by House Republicans, which would extend the 2017 Big Fat Tax Cuts For Rich Fuckwads and then cut taxes — for them — some more, to the tune of $4.5 trillion.
The very minimally detailed plan — perhaps it’s more of a concept of a plan — also calls for cutting $2 trillion in spending, or $1.5 trillion, depending on which outlet you’re reading. As those varying numbers suggest, the plan isn’t terribly specific about how, just that the cuts can’t come from the military or from border enforcement, both of which would get budget increases. The bill instructs various House committees to come up with the details, which will be finalized in a big ol’ bill that would be passed using the reconciliation process, allowing the thing to pass by a simple majority, avoiding a filibuster in the Senate.
That vagueness probably has as much to do with just how little House Republicans agree with each other as with any plan to hide their intentions. It goes without saying they want to inflict huge cuts on social spending, including Medicaid; they only disagree on how draconian those cuts should be — the resolution is already being condemned by the House Freedom Cockups because the topline cuts aren’t big enough.
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans have their own budget plan that would cut taxes and increase military and border spending first, then figure out cuts to pay for them in a second reconciliation bill later. House Speaker Mike Johnson says he can’t go for that, no (No), no can do, so look for him to cave on it in a few weeks.
So while we keep in mind that it remains to be seen what sort of fuckery the Republicans eventually do cook up, once all the too many cooks have sung their endless song, we can at least assure you that the House resolution would give massive tax cuts to the rich and corporations, pay for some of it by slashing funding for programs that actually help Americans, and leave an IOU for the rest in a dusty unused drawer in some recently-vacated office that still reeks of Elon’s musk.
Besides the tax cuts, the resolution calls for raising the federal debt ceiling by $4 trillion, so it presumably wouldn’t have to be raised again during Trump’s presidency — probably. (Remember, the debt limit is some stupid shit we should get rid of anyway.) It also sets the stage for massive spending cuts, disguised in a bland phrase about how it’s the “goal of this concurrent resolution to reduce mandatory spending by $2 trillion,” which NBC News helpfully points out means “the part of the budget that includes … Medicaid, SNAP benefits and more.” (NBC News includes “Medicare,” too, but that’s wrong because like Social Security, it’s funded by payroll taxes and isn’t subject to the appropriations process. No guarantee Rs wouldn’t come for them later anyway, but they don’t go in the same budget category as the others.)
And if that goal isn’t met, then the resolution would hand the problem to the Ways and Means Committee so it could “reduce” the tax cuts by however much is needed to meet the available cuts. Or to slash everything. Or just throw it onto the national debt, not that they’d ever admit to doing that.
Over at The American Prospect, David Dayen looks at the topline cuts various House committees were assigned to make, and translates them into likely cuts based on what parts of the budget those committees deal with.
The Agriculture Committee is responsible for $230 billion; that signals cuts to the food stamp program of at least 20 percent. The Education and Workforce Committee’s $330 billion in cuts is intended for slashes to student loan programs, increasing the cost of college for millions. The Energy and Commerce Committee’s reduction of $880 billion is presumably also about Medicaid, even though that seems to overlap with the aspirational mandatory spending cuts. The Oversight and Transportation Committees also have other trivial obligations for cuts, totaling about $60 billion. (All of these numbers are over a decade.)
On top of those cuts, the bill leaves out, or at least doesn’t seem to leave room for, some of the additional tax cuts that Trump campaigned on, like exempting tips, overtime, and Social Security benefits from income tax. And it’s a good $200 billion short of the spending boosts the Senate wants to give to the military and to immigration enforcement, too. Plus, as we say, the Slash Everything Caucus already opposes the resolution as released.
Even though it’s all very uncertain so far, and the targeted total cuts mean that Medicaid would have to be cut, some House Republicans are already lying and insisting that Medicaid won’t be touched, because of word magic about “work requirements” (which translate to cuts) or “cracking down on fraud” (cuts again) that you should be smart enough not to believe.
In short, the fuckers say they have a plan, but House Republicans can’t agree among themselves whether to simply abandon working-class Americans or dismantle them and sell them for parts, and then the Senate isn’t even talking to the House about how to do any of it.
Hey, did we mention that the current temporary spending bill runs out on March 14, and after that we’ll once more face a government shutdown?
[House Budget Resolution / NBC News / American Prospect / The Fucking News / Politico]
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It's a well known fact that rich people work harder when they're given more money and poor people get lazy when they're given more money.
OT: I am peacing out for the day - all of this is just too stressful for me to deal with right now. These assholes don't care about the rest of us, what all we have to deal with in the real world, while they break our country by breaking the government.
Daddy had a session with the PT while I was visiting this morning, and he did well, but he seems to have lost his confidence in standing up and walking. He did some exercises while seated in the wheelchair, but it's a start. However, my younger brother, who has been in rehab for a year, is now on oxygen, and they are testing to see what the problem is.
So sick of people thinking that "government is the problem," which only true when repubs run things. Run things into the ground, that is.