House GOP 2019 budget calls for deep Medicare, Medicaid spending cuts

http://thehill.com/policy/finance/393028-house-gop-2019-budget-calls-for-deep-medicare-medicaid-spending-cuts

House GOP 2019 budget calls for deep Medicare, Medicaid spending cuts
By Niv Elis - 06/19/18 01:16 PM EDT


The House GOP budget proposal released Tuesday calls for a $5.4 trillion decrease in mandatory spending over a decade, including $537 billion in reductions to Medicare and $1.5 trillion in reductions to Medicaid and other health programs.

Another $2.6 trillion in reductions would come from other mandatory spending programs that include welfare and anti-poverty programs.



The budget, which will be marked up on Wednesday and Thursday, is largely a messaging document. Congress is legally required to approve a budget plan by April, which then kicks off a process of appropriating through 12 spending bills.

This year, appropriators hit the ground running on the basis of a spending caps deal reached in February. Until this week, it was unclear whether the House Budget Committee would even bother with a budget plan. There is still no word from the Senate Budget Committee on whether it will present its own document.

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