WASHINGTON -- Trying to win over conservatives, House Republicans are adapting their budget proposal by putting several programs on the chopping block, including the federal health care law and tax credits for children of immigrants living in the country illegally.
But cuts to programs like food stamps are on hold, and a drive to cap medical malpractice awards has faltered before a GOP-controlled committee, though cuts to Medicaid and a program that provides health coverage to children have advanced through a panel responsible for federal health programs.
The strategy is to increase Republican support for the budget, a nonbinding measure that sets a more than $1.1 trillion overall cap next fiscal year for the operating budgets of federal agencies. Beyond the appropriations cap, the measure calls for spending cuts to benefit programs like Medicaid, President Barack Obama's health care law , and food stamps.
So far, the idea of the so-called sidecar spending cuts hasn't swayed conservatives opposing the broader budget outline because of its endorsement of last year's budget pact between Obama and the GOP-controlled Congress.
Just three years ago, House Republicans lashed out at a Democratic-controlled Senate for failing to adopt a budget, and they forced through a temporary law that would have cut off the paychecks of lawmakers if they failed to pass a budget.
"When I grew up in Wisconsin, if you had a job and you did the work, then you got paid. If you didn't do the work, you didn't get paid. It's that simple," Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said at the time. "All we're saying is: 'Congress, follow the law. Do your work. Budget.'"
The "No Budget, No Pay" law has lapsed, however, and for the first time since taking over the House in 2011, Republicans are at risk of failing to do a budget. If the broader but nonbinding budget plan remains stalled, then the sidecar idea is likely to get scrapped, several GOP aides said.
The lack of progress throws into doubt the plans of Ryan, now the House speaker, and his fellow GOP leaders to bring a full menu of agency spending bills to the floor this year. On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., promised that his chamber would devote three months of floor time to appropriations bills.
Republicans have never sought to actually implement the most controversial cuts they've proposed, such as transforming Medicare into a voucherlike program for future retirees or sweeping cuts to Medicaid health coverage for the poor, elderly and disabled.
Instead, when proposing spending savings, Republicans have frequently gone after many of the same targets, opting for cuts that are politically easy for GOP lawmakers. And that's the case with the two committees that have already approved their share of the 10-year, $140 billion in cuts called for by House GOP leaders.
The tax-writing Ways and Means Committee and the Energy and Commerce panel have weighed in with cuts to a prevention fund established by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and a move to reclaim the act's subsidies from people whose income has unexpectedly increased. A temporary increase in the government's contribution to a health care program for children from lower-income families would be repealed.
The tax panel also would require taxpayers seeking the refundable portion of the $1,000 child tax credit to claim it by filing their taxes with a Social Security number rather than an ID number commonly used by immigrants working illegally, saving a projected $20 billion over the coming decade.
But an effort to save $44 billion over a 10-year period by putting restrictions on medical malpractice awards unraveled in the Judiciary Committee last month. The measure was estimated to generate savings because doctors would be less likely to perform tests or treatments solely intended to prevent lawsuits.
The Judiciary Committee measure would have placed a $250,000 cap on noneconomic damages and established new guidelines for punitive damages. That drew opposition from some panel Republicans, even though similar legislation has passed in prior years.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee is delaying consideration of cuts to food stamps until the broader budget blueprint is passed.
"I'm going to wait until there's a deal," said Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway, R-Texas. He added that there was no reason to "create a furor and have an argument with a bunch of folks" if the effort is going nowhere.
The agriculture panel has jurisdiction over food stamps and farm subsidies.
A Section on 04/06/2016