House Budget Committee Republicans are eyeing more than 200 changes to the federal budget ahead of the vast reconciliation bill, including myriad spending cuts, tax breaks, tariffs as well as tweaks to Medicare, The Hill reported Friday.
The menu of options and the cost savings or increases that would result include tax breaks proposed by President-elect Donald Trump, changes to the State and Local Tax (SALT) deductions and the corporate tax rate, according to the report.
The document shared with The Hill follows a report from last week detailing more than $5 trillion in budget cuts that House Republicans are considering in order to bankroll Trump’s top domestic policies.
Among the changes Republicans on the budget panel, chaired by Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, are seeking, according to The Hill:
- Making Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent: $4.6 trillion in costs
- Trump’s general tariffs at 10%: $1.9 trillion in revenue
- Increasing tariffs on China: $100 billion in deficit reduction
- Scrapping IRS enforcement funding: $46.6 billion in savings
- Dropping the corporate tax rate to 20%: $73 billion in costs
- New border adjustment tax: $1.2 trillion in revenue
Trump’s pledge to cancel taxes on tips would cost $106 billion and canceling overtime taxes — policies introduced on the campaign trail — would cost $61 billion, according to The Hill.
According to a Politico report last week, many of the offsets being considered by Budget Republicans are changes to Medicaid ($2.3 trillion in savings) and ending Biden administration climate programs ($468 billion), slashing welfare and “reimagining" the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare ($151 billion), to name a few.
The overall savings of the menu items shared with Politico could add up to $5.7 trillion if all were proposed and passed, which is highly unlikely.
The “document is not intended to serve as a proposal, but instead as a menu of potential spending reductions for members to consider,” a House GOP source told Politico.
Regardless, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Arrington and Republicans are hunting for cuts to help offset Trump’s programs. Border security and tax cuts, for example, are expected to alone cost as much as $10 million over the next 10 years, according to the report.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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