WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is moving quickly on a compromise GOP budget that promises to speed repeal of the nation's health care law and calls for a major budget hike for the Pentagon.
The nonbinding agreement promises to balance the budget in nine years with more than $5 trillion in spending cuts, though Republicans make clear they aren't interested in actually implementing controversial cuts to programs like Medicare, food stamps, Pell Grants or traditional Medicaid with follow-up legislation.
Instead, the budget framework increases spending in the near term by padding war accounts by almost $40 billion next year. And Senate Republicans, skittish over Medicare, blocked a House plan that called for giving future retirees subsidies to purchase health insurance on the open market instead of a guaranteed package of coverage.