Capitol Hill Watch | House Budget Committee Approves FY 2007 Budget Plan Without Medicare, Medicaid Cuts

The House Budget Committee on Wednesday voted 22-17 along party lines to approve a $2.8 trillion fiscal year 2007 budget resolution that does not call for mandatory spending reductions to Medicare or Medicaid, CQ Today reports. President Bush in his budget proposal last month outlined $65 billion in spending reductions from Medicare and other mandatory programs over five years. The House resolution includes $6.8 billion in spending reductions to mandatory programs, but it “spar[es] politically sensitive programs such as Medicaid and Medicare,” CQ Today reports (Dennis, CQ Today, 3/29). Budget Committee Chair Jim Nussle (R-Iowa) and other House committee chairs “are still figuring out how to meet the $6.8 billion mandatory spending cut goal,” CongressDaily reports (Cohn, CongressDaily, 3/29). The House resolution adopts Bush’s proposed $873 billion cap on discretionary spending, which would increase 3.6% over last year (Dennis, CQ Today, 3/29). The plan includes a 7% increase in the core defense budget, not including war costs, meaning that domestic programs such as health research and education face tightened budgets (Seattle Times, 3/30). Under the discretionary spending cap, “nonsecurity spending would rise by a negligible amount for a near-freeze over FY06 levels,” CongressDaily reports (CongressDaily, 3/29).