The GOP is offering a $3.8 trillion budget, but is making cuts elsewhere to finance the new budget.
House Republicans launched a boldly conservative 10-year budget plan on Tuesday [March 17] that would favor the Pentagon, partially privatize Medicare and rely on deep cuts in other social programs to help wipe out deficits at the end of a decade, according to NBC.
To meet their promise to balance the budget within a decade, Republicans propose cutting $5.5 trillion from a federal budget that’s on track to total $50 trillion over that period. They also swallow up almost $1 trillion in higher tax revenues over a decade by assuming the expiration of popular tax breaks like the research and development tax break that are known collectively in Washington-speak as tax ‘extenders’, according to PBS.
The budget comes with the promise of no tax increases and promised greater prosperity, opportunity, security and freedom from Republicans. Obama denounced the Republican claims instantly saying that, “is a failure to invest in education, infrastructure and national defense – all the things we need to grow, to create jobs, to stay at the forefront of innovation and to keep our country safe” in an article from NBC. The budget is certainly going to be a hot topic throughout the still early race for the White House election in 2016.
The president’s own budget calls for about $2 trillion over 10 years in higher taxes on corporations, wealthy individuals and smokers of all income levels as part of a plan to increase spending and give tax breaks to the middle class, according to Business Insider.
The proposal of $36 billion more than Obama recommended for overseas military and diplomatic efforts in the coming budget year. Less than half of the $36 billion would be guaranteed, and the rest would help the offsetting of spending cuts elsewhere in the budget.
The budget is still a topic of controversy among the House, but the budget has yet to be finalized.
