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iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — House Republicans are proposing a $4 trillion budget for 2018 that includes deep cuts to social programs such as Medicaid and food stamps, which they say have ballooned to unsustainable levels.
The bill also calls for a fundamental reshaping of Medicare over the next decade by introducing a voucher system to rework and shrink costs as the country’s population ages.
The House Budget Committee released a blueprint of its budget resolution Tuesday and plans to debate and make amends to the bill Wednesday.
The overall budget-deficit reduction in the Republican draft is based on a 2.6 percent economic growth rate in the country over the next decade, according to the plan summaries. That’s much higher and more optimistic than the 1.9 percent the Congressional Budget Office estimated for the nation.
The resolution also projects future savings based on an assumption that Congress passes the American Health Care Act, the House version of Republicans’ repeal-and-replace health care bill.
The House committee says its budget commits significant resources to “border construction.” The blueprint calls for a total $622 billion in defense spending, even more than the White House proposed, and an additional $511 billion in nondefense discretionary spending in 2018.
Budget resolutions are nonbinding. It is possible lawmakers will still appropriate spending at higher levels even if they pass a resolution resembling this plan. As for the resolution’s prospects, though, conservatives in the House already say they want deeper cuts included.
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