House GOP Budget Picture Starts to Develop: Increased Overall Spending & CBO est. ~$2,400,000,000,000 in Additional Debt

[essentialsaltes]

US House Republicans pass stopgap bill to fund government​

The bill passed in a nearly party-line 217-213 vote, with one Republican voting no and one Democrat yes.

The continuing resolution, which largely keeps the government funded at its current level through September 30, would need to be passed by the Republican-majority Senate and signed by Trump into law by Friday to avert a shutdown.

 

[Hans Blaster]

How long does that session last?

2027 Jan 3.

Does that mean that the emergency declarations are continued?

It means that the resolution in the House to cancel it will not reach the floor unless enough GOP Representatives get angry enough at 5 weekly changes to punitive tariffs to either overthrow the Speaker or put together a "discharge petition" to force a vote.

 

[Nithavela]

2027 Jan 3.

It means that the resolution in the House to cancel it will not reach the floor unless enough GOP Representatives get angry enough at 5 weekly changes to punitive tariffs to either overthrow the Speaker or put together a "discharge petition" to force a vote.

That's a convoluted way to Ermächtigungsgesetz, but I can dig it.

 

[Hans Blaster]

That's a convoluted way to Ermächtigungsgesetz, but I can dig it.

I did not see that response coming.

 

[RocksInMyHead]

That's a convoluted way to Ermächtigungsgesetz, but I can dig it.

Gesundheit.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Salesman-in-chief: Trump leans on Freedom Caucus to learn to stop worrying and love the deficit​

Donald Trump just convinced dozens of Republican hardliners to do what House speakers from John Boehner to Kevin McCarthy could not: Walk the plank on one of Washington’s dreaded short-term spending bills.

Even with the House GOP’s own whip operation in overdrive, it was Trump who landed the final votes for a funding measure that many conservatives publicly admitted they loathed.

“This is a very difficult vote for them. They’ve never voted for one of these,” Emmer told CNN of the ultraconservatives’ decision to back the spending bill.

However, Trump’s sale pitch to skeptical Republicans could also put the White House in a bind down the line as the president and his top aides appeared to have made conflicting promises.

Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee, for instance, said the president assured him that DOGE will more closely scrutinize defense spending moving forward. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed to increase spending for the Pentagon in a separate conversation with Republican senators.

Trump’s message, according to one GOP member who received a call, was: “Put your faith and trust within me, and I won’t burn you.”

 

[essentialsaltes]

US House Republicans pass stopgap bill to fund government​

The bill passed in a nearly party-line 217-213 vote, with one Republican voting no and one Democrat yes.

The continuing resolution, which largely keeps the government funded at its current level through September 30, would need to be passed by the Republican-majority Senate and signed by Trump into law by Friday to avert a shutdown.

Shutdown looms as ‘unified’ U.S. Senate Dems oppose GOP’s stopgap spending bill​

WASHINGTON — Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer appeared to announce Wednesday that a partial government shutdown will begin on Friday at midnight, when a stopgap spending law expires.

“Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort, but Republicans chose a partisan path drafting their continuing resolution without any input, any input, from congressional Democrats,” Schumer said during a brief floor speech. “Because of that, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House CR.”

[Though true, I think the real reason is more that We The People need more clarity on how the President will or won't spend money that Congress has already appropriated for certain things. At the moment, it seems he won't.]

[Schumer has proposed a stoppier-gappier measure for a month of funding.]

Further complicating matters, the House left Tuesday for its weeklong St. Patrick’s Day recess and won’t return to Capitol Hill until Monday, March 24.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Shutdown looms as ‘unified’ U.S. Senate Dems oppose GOP’s stopgap spending bill​

Shutdown fades as 'unified' U.S. Senate Dems support GOP's stopgap spending bill
Senate Democrats remained tight-lipped after huddling behind closed doors ahead of the fast-approaching government funding deadline.

"What happens in caucus, stays in caucus," Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin said as she left the weekly lunch.

"Ask somebody else," Democratic Sen. Cory Booker grumbled.

Tensions were on full display at the private meeting. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand was yelling so loudly about the impact of a shutdown that reporters could hear her through the walls.

 

[public hermit]

Shutdown fades as 'unified' U.S. Senate Dems support GOP's stopgap spending bill
Senate Democrats remained tight-lipped after huddling behind closed doors ahead of the fast-approaching government funding deadline.

"What happens in caucus, stays in caucus," Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin said as she left the weekly lunch.

"Ask somebody else," Democratic Sen. Cory Booker grumbled.

Tensions were on full display at the private meeting. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand was yelling so loudly about the impact of a shutdown that reporters could hear her through the walls.

I'm with Schumer, a shut down is a bad idea and doesn't help Democrats. It certainly doesn't help citizens. Actually, not much but judges will help Democrats and citizens, at this point. This is what happens when the populace votes for a very foolish man as POTUS.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Republican Medicaid cuts could shutter rural hospitals, maternity care​

Trump county residents worry Medicaid cuts could throw them back into opioid spiral​

HARLAN, Ky. [oblig]

Almost half of people in Harlan County receive Medicaid, which isadministered by the state of Kentucky but funded largely by the federal government. Those funds help pay for doctor visits and prescriptions, but Medicaid also subsidizes a burgeoning industry of rehabilitation facilities and treatment centers in a state that has one of the country’s highest rates of opioid abuse.

“The substance abuse treatment industry in eastern Kentucky employs more people than the coal mines ever thought about,” said the owner of one facility, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid fraying professional relationships. “With Medicaid expansion, if you need help, you can get it now. You can get medication, you can get counseling, you can get therapy. Basically, you can get almost any service that you need, more services than you ever could have before.”

“I have seen firsthand the people behind those statistics who have went and rehabilitated their bodies and their lives and are now productive members of society, and I worry what would have become of them had they not had Medicaid,” said [county chief exec] Mosley, a Republican who voted for Trump in 2024 and thinks congressional Republicans will deliver a plan that cuts waste but also helps his community stay afloat, even if it includes tweaks to Medicaid or other entitlements.

“Any substantial impact to either [Medicaid reimbursement] rates or the overall amount coming in to the state will have a significant impact that no state in the country would be able to escape,” [Gov.] Beshear said. Further reductions could mean some rural hospitals would have to reduce services and staff, or even close. “If these cuts go too deep, it’s a risk to every piece of progress we’ve made in the last 10 years.”

Last month, Harlan residents were reminded of what those cuts could look like. Harlan’s hospital, a branch of Appalachian Regional Healthcare, announced that it was closing its labor and delivery unit. That means people giving birth in Harlan have to drive 40 miles to Middlesboro, Tennessee, or 50 miles to Whitesburg, Kentucky, or else give birth in the hospital’s emergency department.

 

[essentialsaltes]

New analysis says Trump budget plan will take from poorest 40 percent to give to wealthy​

Both Medicaid and SNAP would suffer hundreds of billions in cuts, according to the analysis

An analysis by Yale University has found that a budget plan being considered by Republican lawmakers would ultimately transfer wealth from the poorest 40 percent of Americans to the richest 1 percent.

Researchers Harris Eppsteiner and John Ricco of Yale's Budget Lab found that the proposed GOP budget whose framework was supported last month in a vote by the House would include $4.5 trillion in tax cuts that would largely benefit the wealthy, along with $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, including to benefits for the public, including the poorest.

"The overall effect of these policy changes would be regressive, shifting after-tax-and-transfer resources away” from households at the “bottom of the distribution towards those at the top," Eppsteiner and Ricco wrote in their analysis.

Taxed households at the “bottom of the income distribution would see a reduction in after-tax-and-transfer income of 5 percent, those in the middle of the distribution would see a modest increase of 0.6 percent, and those in the top 5 percent of tax units [household] would see an increase of 3%,” wrote Eppsteiner and Ricco.

 

[essentialsaltes]

‘Not how this works’: The GOP agenda is stuck amid House vs. Senate infighting​

To show quick progress, lawmakers will have to make a host of difficult decisions in the coming weeks.

Now months into the process, House and Senate Republicans are still trading barbs and accusing each side of slowing down progress on President Donald Trump’s top legislative priority — a sweeping bill linking a tax overhaul to energy, defense and border policies.

Speaker Mike Johnson has set an ambitious goal of finalizing a budget blueprint with the Senate and getting it passed in the House by the week of April 7.

Yet nearly every key decision remains unsettled. They include how deep to cut into social safety-net spending, how to placate swing-seat lawmakers over a key tax break, how to account for the cost of extending existing tax cuts and how many more breaks they can pile on top.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is set to huddle again this week with GOP leaders and tax writers as they try to reconcile the two chambers’ diverging plans. On several fronts, the Senate is looking for cues on how to proceed from the House and vice versa, creating a chicken-and-egg situation that has resulted in a quiet standoff between the two chambers.

Driving the caution on the Senate side is widespread skepticism among GOP senators that the House can deliver on a bill that meets the budget it adopted last month — particularly its goal of $2 trillion in spending cuts. [So the Senate wants to wait for the House to spell it out.]

House Republicans, including Johnson’s tax writers on the Ways and Means Committee, don’t intend to draft a bill before the Senate agrees on a fiscal outline. [So the House wants to wait for the Senate to give it a target.]

 

[essentialsaltes]

Some in the White House consider making taxes slightly more progressive: Trump might let taxes rise for the rich​

The big picture: Some White House officials believe letting income taxes on the very highest earners rise would buy breathing room on other priorities, and help blunt Democrats' attacks as they seek to extend President Trump's 2017 tax cuts.

• Officials say all discussions are preliminary and nothing is set in stone.
• "If we renew tax cuts for the rich paid for by throwing people off Medicaid, we're gonna get [doggone] slaughtered," the White House official said.

 

[essentialsaltes]

‘Not how this works’: The GOP agenda is stuck amid House vs. Senate infighting​

Are they even trying? No.

Why Republicans might approve a budget whose numbers don’t match up​

The planned House vs. Senate split sidesteps a thorny political problem but sets up a tricky path forward.

Rather than align House and Senate committees behind the same savings targets in the budget framework for that megabill, they want to set different numbers for each chamber.

House committees will be asked to cut at least $2 trillion in spending from safety-net programs, while Senate committees might be directed to find a minimum of a few billion dollars in savings.

Bill Hoagland, a former longtime top Senate GOP budget aide, said in an interview that the bifurcated approach Republican leaders are pursuing is “unique” and is “stretching” the process that has governed budget legislation for 50 years.

“Historically, that’s never been done,” he said.

 

[Pommer]

Are they even trying? No.

Why Republicans might approve a budget whose numbers don’t match up​

The planned House vs. Senate split sidesteps a thorny political problem but sets up a tricky path forward.

Rather than align House and Senate committees behind the same savings targets in the budget framework for that megabill, they want to set different numbers for each chamber.

House committees will be asked to cut at least $2 trillion in spending from safety-net programs, while Senate committees might be directed to find a minimum of a few billion dollars in savings.

Bill Hoagland, a former longtime top Senate GOP budget aide, said in an interview that the bifurcated approach Republican leaders are pursuing is “unique” and is “stretching” the process that has governed budget legislation for 50 years.

“Historically, that’s never been done,” he said.

Bills are supposed to make sense?
Maybe the “plan” is to present POTUS with the Bill as-is and let the Chief Executive sort it out?

 

[essentialsaltes]

Senate GOP won’t take up House budget resolution until at least late March​

Senate Republicans [minus Rand Paul] vote to advance a massive budget blueprint for Trump's agenda​

The Senate voted 52-48 to begin debate on a multitrillion-dollar plan that would cut taxes, boost spending for immigration enforcement and the military and raise the debt limit.

Republicans indicate in the budget blueprint that they plan to use "an accounting method" to score the cost of permanently extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts at $0, after it was estimated to cost $4.6 trillion in a letter Thursday by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation. [scare quotes added; this is an outrageous lie]

The plan allows for an additional $1.5 trillion in tax cuts on top of that, giving the Senate Finance Committee flexibility to decide where those cuts are made.

The budget plan also paves the way for $175 billion in new funding for immigration enforcement to carry out mass deportation, and a $150 billion increase to military spending.

The big open question is how much spending Republicans will cut, and what they’ll go after. The measure calls for only a few billion dollars in spending cuts, a paltry sum compared to the tax cuts and spending increases it necessitates.

The House is looking downright reasonable with only $2.5T in additional debt. Unless the Senate comes up with more cuts, this plan is $6T and more in additional debt.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Senate Republicans [minus Rand Paul] vote to advance a massive budget blueprint for Trump's agenda​

The big open question is how much spending Republicans will cut, and what they’ll go after. The measure calls for only a few billion dollars in spending cuts, a paltry sum compared to the tax cuts and spending increases it necessitates.

The House is looking downright reasonable with only $2.5T in additional debt. Unless the Senate comes up with more cuts, this plan is $6T and more in additional debt.

Trump completely endorses paltry cuts.

Trump completely endorses $1 trillion in cuts.

The chambers don't agree, and either option is going to produce trillions in additional debt (if the tax cuts go through).

 

[essentialsaltes]

Senate Republicans [minus Rand Paul] vote to advance a massive budget blueprint for Trump's agenda​

The Senate voted 52-48 to begin debate on a multitrillion-dollar plan that would cut taxes, boost spending for immigration enforcement and the military and raise the debt limit.

Johnson scraps vote on Trump-backed budget blueprint​

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday night the House would not vote as planned on the Senate-approved GOP budget blueprint that would fund President Donald Trump's agenda because a small "subset" of members are not totally satisfied with it.

Johnson signaled the House will try again on Thursday before the chamber is slated to go on its two-week April recess.

ETA:

House passes Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' to fund his agenda​

Speaker Mike Johnson overcomes hard-liner opposition with Trump's help.

[Senator] Thune seemed less enthusiastic about the [$1.5T] target for deficit reduction but meekly endorsed the House’s lofty goal for budget savings -- announcing the Senate’s ambition for fiscal sustainability is "aligned with the House."

 

[essentialsaltes]

GOP lawmakers running out of options to pay for Trump’s costly agenda​

Without finding some new ideas, the GOP risks adding trillions of dollars to future deficits by passing Trump’s agenda, something many conservatives are loath to do.

“I just don’t see them getting the money. There’s no ‘there’ there, to be quite honest about it. If they want to spend money, they’re going to end up putting it on the debt,” said former Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.), who previously served as the Republican chair of the Senate Budget Committee.

“If you take all the big pots of money off the table, it becomes very hard to find enough savings to offset $4 [trillion], $5 — or more — trillion in tax cuts, let alone bring the debt down, which is the stated goal of many members,” she said.

“People say you can’t touch benefits for anything, you can’t raise taxes. OK, then we’re going to have a debt crisis. That is the result of not talking about benefits and/or taxes,” she warned.

Extending Trump’s expiring 2017 tax cuts would add an estimated $4.6 trillion to the debt over the next decade.

In addition, the House and Senate Republicans are calling for the federal government to spend between $200 billion and $350 billion [more, i.e. additional spending] to secure the nation’s borders and between $100 billion and $150 billion to beef up defense spending.

Budget experts say negotiators will have a very difficult time finding $1.5 trillion in savings. [And even if they do, that's not going to counterbalance $4-$5 trillion to pay for the tax cuts.]

 

[wing2000]

GOP lawmakers running out of options to pay for Trump’s costly agenda​

Without finding some new ideas, the GOP risks adding trillions of dollars to future deficits by passing Trump’s agenda, something many conservatives are loath to do.

“I just don’t see them getting the money. There’s no ‘there’ there, to be quite honest about it. If they want to spend money, they’re going to end up putting it on the debt,” said former Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.), who previously served as the Republican chair of the Senate Budget Committee.

“If you take all the big pots of money off the table, it becomes very hard to find enough savings to offset $4 [trillion], $5 — or more — trillion in tax cuts, let alone bring the debt down, which is the stated goal of many members,” she said.

“People say you can’t touch benefits for anything, you can’t raise taxes. OK, then we’re going to have a debt crisis. That is the result of not talking about benefits and/or taxes,” she warned.

Extending Trump’s expiring 2017 tax cuts would add an estimated $4.6 trillion to the debt over the next decade.

In addition, the House and Senate Republicans are calling for the federal government to spend between $200 billion and $350 billion [more, i.e. additional spending] to secure the nation’s borders and between $100 billion and $150 billion to beef up defense spending.

Budget experts say negotiators will have a very difficult time finding $1.5 trillion in savings. [And even if they do, that's not going to counterbalance $4-$5 trillion to pay for the tax cuts.]

What? Tariffs won't cover the 1.5 Trillion?