How Senate, House GOP budgets differ

Budgets released by House and Senate Republicans differ in a number of important ways.

{mosads}Some of this may be explained by the different nature of the chambers.

House Republicans have a large majority and are in no danger of losing it. Many represent districts that have been drawn to make it more likely that a Republican will win in the general election. As a result, many are more concerned about losing primaries to other Republicans

Senate Republicans just won a narrow majority, and could lose it again in 2016 if they aren’t careful. Twenty-four GOP senators will defend their seats next year, many of them in states won by President Obama.

Here are key differences in their budgets.

House

• Balances in nine years, cuts $5.5 trillion over a decade. 

• Proposes significantly raising defense spending next year by boosting a Pentagon war funding account to $90 billion, above Obama’s $58 billion request.
• Directs 13 authorizing committees to produce reconciliation bills by July 15, and explicitly asks them to figure out ways to repeal all of ObamaCare.
• Partially privatizes Medicare and creates a premium support model to take effect in 2024 that would offer a wide range of options. Proposes $148 billion in cuts from Medicare over 10 years.
• Converts Medicaid into block grants for states, cutting $913 billion over the decade.
• Proposes raising defense spending levels by $387 billion over 10 years and cutting non-defense spending by $759 billion.

Senate

• Balances in 10 years, cuts $5.1 trillion in spending over a decade.
• Honors Obama’s $58 billon request for the Pentagon’s war funding account, and imposes a procedural hurdle in the Senate for legislation that requests any more than that.
• Directs only two committees — Finance and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions — to produce reconciliation bills by July 31. The budget doesn’t explicitly emphasize repealing ObamaCare through that budget procedure.
• Honors Obama’s request to find $430 billion in Medicare savings.
• Modifies Medicaid and would base its formulas on the model used for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). This would cut $400 billion in spending.
• Sticks with sequestration spending ceilings for Pentagon’s base budget over the next decade and cuts $236 billion from non-defense domestic programs.