House and Senate negotiators unveiled an $85 billion agreement late Tuesday to fund federal agencies through the fall of 2015, averting another government shutdown and ending the cycle of crisis that has paralyzed Washington for much of the past three years.
In a rare display of bipartisan cooperation, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) stood side by side in the Capitol with Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) to announce the deal, which would cancel half of the sharp spending cuts known as the sequester for the current fiscal year.
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Senate Republicans are shying away from the controversial Ryan budget, instead opting to introduce a plan that outlines the size of budget cuts — but not how, exactly, they would change entitlement programs like Medicare.
via VOX.
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The House GOP’s budget is another attempt to pay down the deficit while targeting seniors, the disabled, & middle-class families during which billionaires and corporations enjoy their tax breaks & loopholes.
Senate Republicans are proposing to cut billions from Medicare and $1 trillion from Medicaid, in addition to big federal spending cuts that would likely decimate federal housing and education programs, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said in a blistering report released Wednesday.
via VOX.
Here is our letter that we sent to Capitol Hill opposing House Fiscal Year 2018 Budget Resolution.
The committee-passed budget resolution would slash funding to Medicare and Medicaid, repeal the Affordable Care Act and make it easier for Congress to cut Social Security – all to pay for massive tax cuts for the very wealthy and profitable corporations.
The House budget calls for fast track procedures designed to ram Social Security benefit cuts through Congress without public scrutiny. This is an undemocratic end run to enact widely unpopular proposals.
The Senate-passed budget resolution would allow the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means Committees to slash programs critical to older Americans and people with disabilities – all to pay for massive tax cuts for the very wealthy and profitable corporations. What is more, under the Senate amendment, $1.5 trillion in tax cuts would not have to be offset. By increasing the federal budget deficit by at least $1.5 trillion, this measure would leave Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid vulnerable to benefit cuts to make up the difference.
The Senate-passed budget would cut Medicare by nearly $500 billion and cut Medicaid and subsidies that make coverage affordable through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces by $1.3 trillion.
More from our letter can be read by clicking here.
Here’s a phrase you can expect to be hearing a lot in the national debate over fiscal policy, as we move past the “sequester,” which is the crisis du jour, and toward the budget cliff/government shutdown deadline looming at the end of March: “Generational theft.”
Michael Hiltzik via Los Angeles Times.
The House budget. The House budget is more detailed than the Senate version in describing how access to affordable health care would be scaled back.
The budget repeals the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) expansion of coverage, eliminating protections for people with pre-existing conditions and the premium subsidies that help consumers buy insurance. However, it does keep the law’s revenue increases intact (some call this a gimmick).
Due to the repeal of the ACA, the budget causes seniors to once again face a gap in prescription drug coverage by reinstating the Medicare “doughnut” hole.
It turns Medicaid into a block grant by combining it with CHIP and then cutting the program by more than a third. This is on top of the elimination of the ACA’s expansion of Medicaid.
Seniors who participate in Medicare could receive a voucher to purchase insurance. But because health costs are rising, both the Medicare voucher and the Medicaid block grant would pay for less and less health care over time.
via Families USA.
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The brunt of the cuts have fallen in areas like medical and science research funding and services that help the poor, sick and elderly.
The sequester slashed 57,000 children this fall from the rolls of Head Start daycare and preschool programs, available for poor families nationwide.
About two-thirds of Meals on Wheels programs had to reduce the number of meals they served, by an average of 364 meals per week, a survey found.
Further reading on the Sequester and its impact on seniors can be found here.
The committee-passed budget resolution would allow the Senate Finance Committee to slash programs critical to older Americans and people with disabilities – all to pay for massive tax cuts for the very wealthy and profitable corporations. What is more, under S. Con. Res. 25, $1.5 trillion in tax cuts would not have to be offset. By increasing the federal budget deficit by at least $1.5 billion, this measure would leave Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid vulnerable to benefit cuts to make up the difference.
The Senate budget would cut Medicare by nearly $500 billion and cut Medicaid and subsides to make coverage affordable through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace by $1.3 billion.
More from our letter can be found here.
The federal budget plan that the Senate passed last week is full of landmines for retirees. In keeping with long-term Republican proposals to privatize Medicare and Social Security and slash Medicaid, the budget template would hurt tens of millions of retirees.
The basic flaw of the GOP plan is that it will balloon the federal deficit by $1.5 trillion and not offset the budget hole by raising revenue or cutting major spending programs – other than social insurance…
…According to the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM), a social insurance advocacy group, the structure of the budget resolution will sacrifice retiree benefits to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.
via Forbes.
Here is where we stand on the GOP Budget:
- FY 2018 House Budget Resolution and Its Effect on Seniors.
- This budget proposes drastic cuts in federal spending for programs of importance to most low- and middle-income Americans while proposing tax breaks to benefit the very wealthy and large profitable corporations.
- Letter Opposing the Senate Fiscal Year 2018 Budget Resolution.
- The committee-passed budget resolution would allow the Senate Finance Committee to slash programs critical to older Americans and people with disabilities – all to pay for massive tax cuts for the very wealthy and profitable corporations.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made a plea for expanding Social Security benefits on Tuesday… in support of Rep. John Larson’s Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust bill. Read more here: https://www.ncpssm.org/entitledtoknow/rep-larson-introduces-social-security-2100-a-sacred-trust-bill/. #Secure2100 #SocialSecurity