Implying its dismay with the House, the Republican staff of the Senate Budget Committee is calling for "greater scrutiny" of how House Republicans plan to cut spending to pay for their tax cuts.
In its weekly "budget bulletin," Senate Republicans present an analysis that shows the House proposes to cut non-defense discretionary spending by some $55.3 billion over the next five years--a 5 percent reduction from the "essentially frozen existing cap funding levels." Senate Budget Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M, has questioned how realistic the House budget plan is, saying the Senate could not pass appropriations bills based on it. Domenici also has questioned how the House plans to pay for its tax cuts.
"While much attention has focused on how many tax cuts would be assumed in the resolution, perhaps more scrutiny is warranted on how those cuts would be offset by reductions in discretionary spending," the Senate GOP staff said.
The analysis notes that the Senate-passed budget plan assumes transportation spending at the balanced budget agreement level, but allows for spending at levels contained in the reauthorization of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act. "The House Budget Committee, however, purported to cut transportation outlays $17.4 billion below the [budget agreement] just one day before the conference committee on the transportation bill agreed to increase spending by $17.5 billion above the [budget deal]," the Senate Republicans said.
The $17.4 billion transportation cut is more than one-third of the $45.1 billion in outlay cuts the House assumes. House Budget Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio, has said if transportation spending increases, the tax cuts in his budget plan would have to decrease or additional offsets be found.
Finally, the Senate GOP staff said that to achieve its spending cuts, the House focuses on a few budget functions--health, international affairs, natural resources and the environment, justice and education. Those budget functions, with the exception of health, are "protected" under the budget deal, the Senate Republicans said.