President Biden has challenged Republicans to ‘show me your budget and I’ll show you mine,’ and now the House Budget panel is identifying billions in cuts, by slashing student loan forgiveness and welfare programs.
House Budget Committee Republicans enumerated the cuts as the White House and Republicans face a looming crisis on the debt limit. They point to the $31 trillion accumulated debt, which could increase by half over the coming decade.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy is refusing to go along with the White House demand for a ‘clean’ increase in the debt limit, and wants to force spending cuts as a price – something the White House compares to hostage taking with the full faith and credit of the U.S. on the line.
The Budget Republicans, led by Texas Rep. Jodey Arrington, say their plan will trip ‘wasteful, inefficient and unnecessary’ federal spending, and identify billions they say could be stripped away from social programs, and Biden initiatives. It comes as Biden has campaigned around the country accusing Republicans of planning to cut Social Security and Medicare.
Budget Committee Republicans announced a plan to wring savings from programs including President Biden’s student loan relief plan
Some, like paring back $100 billion in unspent COVID relief funds, would hit Democratic and Republican states alike. Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis tapped $12 million in unspent COVID funds to secure a flight that brought migrants to Martha’s Vineyard in October.
Other governors have been tapping the funds to fund popular programs without denting their state budgets.
The House GOP has spent years pushing to attach work requirements to welfare benefits, and secured some of those changes after the House takeover in 1994 under President Bill Clinton.
Their list says they could save ‘tens of billions’ through work requirements for welfare and nutrition programs, including wringing $70 billion from food stamps.
One big ticket item would save $25 billion by stopping his moratorium on repayment fo federal student loans, then save an estimated $379 billion by prohibiting his administrative plan to cancel student debt.
The proposed cuts say they would reinstate work requirements for food stamps and reduce fraud to the tune of $70 billion
One cut targets a trail in Georgia named after former first lady Michelle Obama
The Budget Committee, chaired by Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX), released the cuts
Biden has been hammering Republicans over Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL)’s proposal to sunset all federal laws after five years
President Joe Biden is preparing for a clash with Republicans over the debt limit
The plan provides $10,000 in federal student debt forgiveness to those earning less than $125,000. The move, like many of the ideas, would likely die in the Senate, but it is already being challenged in the Supreme Court.
Other plans say they would eliminate ‘woke waste’ and mention lower dollar programs that carry some zing.
One is $1.2 million for LGBTQIA+ Price Centers, a trail named after former First Lady Michelle Obama in Georgia, and $750,000 for a transgender center for immigrant women in Los Angeles.
The cuts come after Biden tussled with House Republicans during the State of the Union address, although both sides said Biden and McCarthy got along during an earlier White House meeting.
Biden has been flying around the country this week attacking Republicans for plotting to cut Social Security and Medicare, by pointing to Sen. Rick Scott’s (R-Fla.) plan to sunset all programs after five years. McCarthy denies planning any such cuts.
‘The guy who ran the U.S. Senate campaign, has a plan. I got his brochure right here. Has a plan,’ Biden said of Scott while speaking in Wisconsin Wednesday. ‘Here’s what he says in his plan, let me open it up here, sorry,’ Biden said. ‘He says all federal legislation sunsets every five years. If the laws are worth keeping, Congress can pass it again. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.’
‘House Republicans are pushing an extreme MAGA agenda that threatens Americans’ well-being and the strength of our economy,’ House Budget Committee tweeted the day before the GOP released its proposed cuts.
