Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

The Congressional Budget Debate

Toomey Budget Similar to House-Passed Ryan Budget

Like the Ryan budget, the budget proposal from Senator Patrick J. Toomey would protect and extend tax cuts that disproportionately benefit higher-income Americans, while reducing deficits through steep cuts in programs that benefit average citizens and people on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder — from low-income programs like Medicaid, to Medicare, to the entire array of non-defense discretionary programs, such as Head Start and food safety inspections. Read more

House Budget Bills Would Target Programs for Lower-Income Families While Breaking Last Summer’s Bipartisan Deal

The House Budget Committee has approved a package of two bills that would alter the bipartisan deal between President Obama and congressional leaders that was reflected in last summer’s Budget Control Act (BCA).

It would eliminate the “sequestration” (automatic cuts) in discretionary programs scheduled for 2013 as a result of the failure of the “supercommittee” to achieve $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction, and replace it with a package that is strikingly unbalanced in how it affects different parts of the budget and, in particular, programs for low- and moderate-income people. Read more

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Understanding the Safety Net

Are Low-Income Programs Enlarging the Nation’s Long-Term Fiscal Problem?

Low-Income Entitlement Spending Outside Health Set to Fall Back to Prior 40-Year Average Virtually all of the recent growth in spending for means-tested programs is due to two factors: the economic downturn and rising costs throughout the U.S. health care system, which affect costs for private-sector care as much as for Medicaid and other government health care programs.

Moreover, Congressional Budget Office projections show that federal spending on means-tested programs other than health care programs will fall substantially as a percent of gross domestic product (GDP) as the economy recovers — and fall below its average level as a percent of GDP over the prior 40 years, from 1972 to 2011. Since these programs are not rising as a percent of GDP, they do not contribute to our long-term fiscal problems. Read more

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