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fiscal year 2025 budget
House Democrat Calls GOP Budget a 'Blueprint for a Dystopian Hellscape'
Rep. Don Beyer warns the plan "would see unbridled benefits flowing to a wealthy and well-connected few while tens of millions of Americans lose healthcare, housing, retirement security, and food security."
Mar 27, 2024
As Republicans on Wednesday set their sights on a key seat opening up in the U.S. House of Representatives, the chamber's senior Democrat on the congressional Joint Economic Committee put out a blistering takedown of a top GOP budget proposal for the next fiscal year.
Congressman Don Beyer (D-Va.) took aim at the 180-page "Fiscal Sanity to Save America" plan released last week by the Republican Study Committee (RSC)—which includes about 80% of GOP House members—following proposals from Democratic President Joe Biden and House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas).
"The Republican Study Committee budget is a blueprint for a dystopian hellscape," he warned. "The vision offered by this group, which counts 4 in 5 House Republicans as members, would see unbridled benefits flowing to a wealthy and well-connected few while tens of millions of Americans lose healthcare, housing, retirement security, and food security."
RSC proposals to "dramatically weaken healthcare," Beyer noted, include turning Medicare into a voucher plan and rolling back Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provisions that cut costs for seniors; repealing tax subsidies for the Affordable Care Act and the law's protections for people with preexisting conditions; and transforming Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program into block grants to states.
As Common Dreams has reported, in addition to seeking cuts to Medicare and Social Security—while claiming to do nothing of the sort—the RSC has also launched a full-fledged assault on reproductive healthcare and rights, promoting 42 bills that would ban abortions after 15 weeks or even earlier, require unnecessary ultrasounds and 24-hour waiting periods, prohibit the use of fetal stem cells for research, and threaten access to in vitro fertilization, among other restrictions.
In addition to attacking reproductive freedom and key programs for seniors and low-income families, Beyer highlighted, the RSC wants to "weaken public health, public safety, and environmental protections," while "cutting taxes for the wealthy, by a lot."
The RSC advocates ending green tax credits from the IRA and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act as well as slashing money for Community Oriented Policing Services and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. The committee also calls for permanently lowering taxes for the ultrarich, indexing capital gains taxes to inflation, repealing the estate tax, rolling back the IRA's corporate alternative minimum tax, and eliminating funding intended to help the Internal Revenue Service catch wealthy tax cheats.
"Democrats believe there is a better way to get our fiscal house in order without betraying our values," said Beyer. "That starts with making smart investments in our people and our future while demanding that the rich and large corporations pay their fair share in taxes. The contrast between the Democratic approach and this Republican budget could not possibly be clearer."
Biden's budget blueprint—released as he prepares for an electoral rematch against former Republican President Donald Trump, who infamously cut taxes for rich people and corporations—proposes a 25% minimum tax for individuals with wealth of more than $100 million, along with ending capital income tax breaks and closing other loopholes.
Polling results released Tuesday by Morning Consult show that a majority of voters across party lines in key swing states support raising taxes on people who make more than $400,000 per year.
Biden and the divided Congress this past weekend narrowly avoided a government shutdown by passing a long-delayed spending package. Fiscal year 2025 is set to begin in October, setting up another election-year fight over funding.
In what's been
dubbed the "Great Resignation," a growing number of House Republicans have announced that they are not seeking reelection or even exited their seats early—shrinking the party's already slim majority in the lower chamber.
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Budget Proposal Shows GOP 'Is the Party of Cutting Social Security and Medicare'
"Trump has tried to walk back his support for Social Security and Medicare cuts," said the head of Social Security Works. "This budget is one of many reasons why no one should believe him."
Mar 20, 2024
Defenders of Social Security and Medicare on Wednesday swiftly criticized the biggest caucus of Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives for putting out a budget proposal for fiscal year 2025 that takes aim at the crucial programs.
The 180-page "Fiscal Sanity to Save America" plan from the Republican Study Committee (RSC) follows the release of proposals from Democratic President Joe Biden and U.S. House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas)—who is leading the fight to create a fiscal commission for the programs that critics call a "death panel" designed to force through cuts.
The RSC document features full sections on "Saving Medicare" and "Preventing Biden's Cuts to Social Security," which both push back on the president's recent comments calling out Republican attacks on the programs that serve seniors.
The caucus plan promotes premium support for Medicare Advantage plans administered by private health insurance providers as well as changes to payments made to teaching hospitals. For Social Security, the proposal calls for tying retirement age to rising life expectancy and cutting benefits for younger workers over certain income levels, including phasing out auxiliary benefits.
The document also claims that the caucus budget "would promote trust fund solvency by increasing payroll tax revenues through pro-growth tax reform, pro-growth energy policy that lifts wages, work requirements that move Americans from welfare to work, and regulatory reforms that increase economic growth."
In a lengthy Wednesday statement blasting the RSC budget, Social Security Works president Nancy Altman pointed out that last week, former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee to face Biden in the November election, "toldCNBC that 'there's a lot you can do' to cut Social Security."
"Everyone who cares about the future of these vital earned benefits should vote accordingly in November."
"Now, congressional Republicans are confirming the party's support for cuts—to the tune of $1.5 trillion. They are also laying out some of those cuts," Altman said. "This budget would raise the retirement age, in line with prominent Republican influencer Ben Shapiro's recent comments that 'retirement itself is a stupid idea.' It would make annual cost-of-living increases stingier, so that benefits erode over time. It would slash middle-class benefits."
"Perhaps most insultingly, given the Republicans' claim to be the party of 'family values,' this budget would eliminate Social Security spousal benefits, as well as children's benefits, for middle-class families. That would punish women who take time out of the workforce to care for children and other loved ones," she continued. "This coming from a party that wants to take away women's reproductive rights!"
The caucus, chaired by Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), included 285 bills and initiatives from 192 members in its budget plan—among them are various proposals threatening abortion care, birth control, and in vitro fertilization (IVF) nationwide.
"The RSC budget would also take away Medicare's new power to negotiate lower prices on prescription drugs, putting more money into the pockets of the GOP's Big Pharma donors," Altman warned. "And it accelerates the privatization of Medicare, handing it over to private insurance companies who have a long history of ripping off the government and delaying and denying care to those who need it."
"In recent days, Trump has tried to walk back his support for Social Security and Medicare cuts," she noted. "This budget is one of many reasons why no one should believe him. The Republican Party is the party of cutting Social Security and Medicare, while giving tax handouts to billionaires."
"The Democratic Party is the party of expanding Social Security and Medicare, paid for by requiring the ultrawealthy to contribute their fair share," Altman added. "Everyone who cares about the future of these vital earned benefits should vote accordingly in November."
Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler also targeted the Republican presidential candidate while slamming the RSC plan, saying that "Donald Trump's MAGA allies in Congress made it clear today: A vote for Trump is a vote to make the MAGA 2025 agenda of cutting Social Security, ripping away access to IVF, and banning abortion nationwide a hellish reality."
"While Trump and his allies push forward their extreme agenda, the American people are watching," Tyler added, suggesting that the RSC proposal will help motivate voters to give Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris four more years in the White House.
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Biden Budget Includes Over $1 Trillion in 'Militarized Spending': Analysis
"If we are ever going to stop the cycle of endless war, we'll have to invest differently."
Mar 12, 2024
U.S. President Joe Biden's new budget proposal calls for more than $1 trillion in military-related spending for the coming fiscal year, according to an analysis released Monday by the National Priorities Project.
That's more than twice as much as the president's proposed discretionary spending on domestic programs related to public health, housing, education, and environmental protection.
The $1.1 trillion in "militarized spending" includes $850 billion for the Pentagon, an agency that recently failed its sixth consecutive audit and can't account for a majority of its roughly $4 trillion in assets. The $850 billion topline is a $9 billion increase over the Pentagon budget that Congress is expected to approve for the current fiscal year.
The president's 2025 request also includes $34 billion in Department of Energy funding for the nation's nuclear stockpile, at least $11.6 billion in international military aid, more than $60 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, and $113 billion for veterans' programs.
"That's not all the militarism in the budget," noted Lindsay Koshgarian, program director of the National Priorities Project. "In reality, the spending on militarization in this budget is even higher. These figures, which come from the administration, treat the militarization of domestic law enforcement—things like the domestic work of the FBI, federal marshalls, and grants to local law enforcement agencies—as domestic expenses. NPP reports from previous years have found that those expenses added tens of billions more in militarized spending."
The $1.1 trillion also excludes money "for the Pentagon's operations in support of various wars," Koshgarian observed.
"That's highly unrealistic given current administration policies," she wrote. "The administration hasn't been making visible efforts to end the war in Ukraine, nor has it responded to demands that it withhold military aid to Israel in light of war crimes the Israeli government continues to perpetrate there. Without—at the very least—some efforts along those lines, it's not reasonable to assume these extra expenses will just drop to zero next year."
"War hawks squealing that a 1% increase to defense spending is 'meager' or 'catastrophic' lack perspective altogether."
Biden's budget request would push U.S. military spending to record levels, but Republican lawmakers immediately criticized the proposal as inadequate—a signal that they are likely to attempt to pile even more money into the Pentagon's bloated coffers, as they do almost every year.
"War hawks squealing that a 1% increase to defense spending is 'meager' or 'catastrophic' lack perspective altogether," Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of Public Citizen, said in a statement Monday. "The true catastrophe is the existing scale of U.S. military spending. The Pentagon is a three-quarters-of-a-trillion-dollar agency that has never once passed an audit. It's infamous for waste, fraud, and bankrolling defense corporations. Roughly half of the total Department of Defense budget goes to contractors each year."
"Reallocating billions away from the Pentagon and into direct human needs instead," Gilbert added, "would benefit everyday Americans far more."
The White House drew praise from progressive advocacy groups for proposing a revival of the expanded child tax credit that slashed youth poverty in 2021, among other domestic investments. The program expired at the end of 2021 due to opposition from congressional Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), causing child poverty to surge.
Groups also contrasted Biden's proposal with the fiscal year 2025 resolution passed last week by the Republican-controlled House Budget Committee, which calls for steep cuts to Medicaid, education, infrastructure spending, and more while backing a "fiscal commission" for Social Security and Medicare.
But Koshgarian wrote Monday that Biden's request would still not provide the "security we need, in terms of costs of living, quality of life, climate change, or securing peace." She noted that the White House proposal would boost the Pentagon budget by "more than 10 times that of the Department of Education" and "330 times that of the State Department."
"If we are ever going to stop the cycle of endless war," she argued, "we'll have to invest differently."
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