Republican Rep. Paul D. Ryan’s budget blueprint would balance the budget in 10 years by cutting spending by a total of $5.7 trillion compared with the Congressional Budget Office’s baseline, which assumes war costs will grow with inflation. Against Ryan's own current policy baseline, which assumes lower war costs, his plan would cut only $4.6 trillion. Democratic Sen. Patty Murray’s budget calls for a combination of new revenue and spending cuts to reduce the deficit by $1.8 trillion from CBO’s baseline. The House budget panel approved the Ryan plan on a 22-17 party-line vote Wednesday; the Senate panel approved Murray's proposal 12-10 on Thursday.
House Republican Plan | Senate Democratic Plan | |
---|---|---|
Tax code | Would allow floor consideration of a comprehensive overhaul of the tax code, but does not assume a change in revenue relative to the CBO baseline. | Would direct the Finance Committee to increase revenue by $975 billion over 10 years. |
Discretionary spending and sequester | Calls for transferring the defense sequester to domestic programs and reducing discretionary spending overall. | Calls for replacing the fiscal 2013 sequester with a combination of new revenue and spending cuts. |
Health care | Calls for repeal of the health care law's exchange subsidies and Medicaid expansion, saving $1.8 trillion. Calls for converting Medicaid into a block grant for states. For those now 55 and under, calls for a choice between traditional Medicare and a premium-support-based program upon retirement. |
Calls for cutting $275 billion from mandatory health programs without making major structural changes to entitlements. |
Other mandatory programs | Calls for the president and Congress to submit plans to shore up the Social Security trust funds Calls for cutting $31 billion from farm programs. |
Calls for cutting $23 billion from agriculture programs. |
Economic stimulus | None | Calls for providing $100 billion for infrastructure investments and worker training programs. |
SOURCE: House and Senate Budget Committees