https://news.yahoo.com/republicans-signal-cuts-social-security-175927429.html
HuffPost
Republicans Signal Cuts To Social Security, Medicare With New House Majority
Igor Bobic
Mon, January 9, 2023 at 12:59 PM EST
House Republicans are making clear that they intend to seek cuts to
entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare with their new
majority in the 118th Congress.
Their plans to target health care programs follow demands from a group
of conservatives that helped elect House Speaker Kevin McCarthy
(R-Calif.) over the weekend. Those far-right lawmakers have sought
across-the-board spending cuts in order to tackle the growing national debt.
But the narrow House GOP majority ― McCarthy can afford to lose just
four votes on any bill ― is far more divided on cuts to defense spending
than for entitlement programs.
“I’m all for a balanced budget, but we’re not going to do it on the
backs of our troops and our military,” Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), a
former Army Green Beret, said Monday during an interview on Fox
Business. “If we really want to talk about the debt and spending, it’s
the entitlements programs.”
As part of his list of concessions to conservatives, McCarthy reportedly
agreed to cap spending for the next year at fiscal 2022 levels, which
would amount to over $130 billion in cuts from last month’s $1.7
trillion government funding bill.
Republicans don’t plan to alter benefits for current Social Security and
Medicare recipients, according to Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas).
“What we have been very clear about is, we’re not going to touch the
benefits that are going to people relying on the benefits under Social
Security and Medicare,” Roy said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“But we all have to be honest about sitting at the table and figuring
out how we’re going to make those work, how we’re going to deal with
defense spending and how we’re going to deal with nondefense
discretionary spending.”
The Republican Study Committee proposed a budget for fiscal 2023 that
would gradually increase the eligibility ages for Social Security and
Medicare, and change the Social Security benefit formula for people 54
and younger, while not changing it for people closer to receiving benefits.
Democrats are likely to oppose those changes, as well as any cuts to
Social Security and Medicare, and an ensuing standoff could result in
another government shutdown. The 2018-2019 lapse in federal funding
lasted 35 days after a fight over former President Donald Trump’s border
policies and immigration.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House
Appropriations Committee, warned last week that Republicans were “all
but guaranteeing a shutdown” by demanding to cap spending at fiscal 2022
levels.
“These types of cuts would harm communities and families across the
United States who are already struggling with inflation and the rising
cost of living,” DeLauro said in a statement. “They put support for our
Veterans, law enforcement, small businesses, and military families at risk.”
Arthur Delaney contributed reporting.