House GOP panel passes budget blueprint with $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and steep spending reductions

WASHINGTON — The Republican-controlled House Budget Committee voted along party lines to advance a massive budget blueprint to slash taxes and spending by trillions of dollars.

The vote of 21-16 after a marathon daylong session sends the budget resolution to the full House, where Republicans must unify their paper-thin majority to approve it, and instructs committees to craft a massive package to pass President Donald Trump’s agenda on immigration, taxes and more.

The budget calls for up to $4.5 trillion in new deficits through tax cuts, which Republicans plan to use to extend Trump’s expiring 2017 tax law and pass other pieces of his tax agenda.

It calls for $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, with an additional caveat: The House package has to include $2 trillion in cuts to the “mandatory” part of federal spending, which covers programs like Medicare, Medicaid and food benefits known as SNAP, or $4.5 trillion amount in tax breaks must be reduced by a commensurate amount.

“This budget resolution provides the fiscal framework for what will be one of the most consequential pieces of legislation in modern history and the principal legislative vehicle for delivering on President Trump’s America First agenda,” Budget Committee chair Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, said in a statement. “The era of wasteful, woke, and weaponized government is over.”

“It’s time to meet this generational moment and join President Trump in making the tough decisions that preserve our republic for our children and grandchildren,” Arrington said after the measure passed. “This is our last, best shot to do it.”

Republicans rejected a flurry of Democratic amendments aimed at prohibiting cuts to certain programs used by the middle class and calling for higher taxes on wealthy people and corporations.

The Senate Budget Committee approved a conflicting budget resolution Wednesday that punts on the issue of taxes, presenting a dispute that the party will have to resolve before a bill can pass.

Democrats blasted the House GOP's budget resolution, saying it would harm the middle class.

“This budget rips health care away from millions while handing out $4.5 trillion in tax breaks, the overwhelming majority of which go to billionaires and wealthy corporations,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., the top Democrat on the Budget Committee. “It slashes at least $230 billion from food assistance programs at a time when grocery prices remain at record highs. And it proposes, and I hope every American listens to this, it proposes at least $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. ... All so billionaires can get even a bigger tax cut that they don’t need and the hard-working people in this country can’t afford to give them.”

What comes next for the GOP budget

Even though Republicans succeeded in committee Thursday, the biggest hurdle — actually writing and passing a massive tax, border security, military and energy policy bill — is yet to come.

Before the vote, Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., chair of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, said an amendment offered in the Budget Committee markup “will allow the flexibility to actually bring the tax cuts even higher if deficit reduction is — if there’s more deficit reduction in the bill.”

Harris said he believed the entire Freedom Caucus would support the budget resolution with the amendment included. He said it was an agreement reached with GOP leadership.

“If you go above $2 trillion in deficit reduction in those other committees, you can actually raise the amount of tax cuts,” Harris said. The budget resolution as written says it had a goal of reducing mandatory spending by $2 trillion. Conservatives had been pushing for a higher number than that.

Conversely, if they can’t find $2 trillion worth of cuts, they will have to spend less than $4.5 trillion on taxes, a figure that House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo., has already warned isn’t enough to achieve all their goals. And spending cuts worth $2 trillion may be difficult to achieve without touching Medicaid and other anti-poverty programs.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a conservative hard-liner on the Budget Committee, huddled with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., the night before the markup but declined to say what assurance he was given.

“I think it’s an important model, and we’ve been trying to get to that, where it’s kind of sort of dollar-for-dollar driven,” he said.

That structure, however, could create problems further down the line for House Republicans when they write the policy. The budget resolution, which both chambers must adopt, is merely the first step.

“I think too many members are putting too much hype” into the budget resolution, moderate Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., told NBC News. “It just merely unlocks the ability to do the next step. And the next step is where we may disagree more substantively on.”

Republicans in high-tax blue states like New York want to ensure that their tax bill will raise the current $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction, or SALT, which Trump and the GOP imposed in 2017. LaLota said he is confident SALT will be addressed, but he made it clear he won’t vote for a bill that doesn’t include SALT relief.

It’s unclear whether the measure creates enough room for Trump’s other priorities, like ending taxes on tips, overtime pay and Social Security benefits, all of which would balloon the national debt.

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., said she has expressed “concerns” to leaders about the prospect of steep spending cuts and told reporters that, before she agrees to vote for the budget resolution, she wants “better clarity” about the next stage — especially when it comes to cuts.

“$4.5 trillion doesn’t leave a lot of room for the president’s priorities,” Malliotakis said. “I’m also concerned about any deeper cuts to Medicaid, outside of going after the way it is mismanaged and some of the waste and abuse and ensuring we have work requirements and ensuring that noncitizens are not eligible. Outside of that, I don’t want to see cuts that are going to hurt my hospitals or my organizations that work with developmentally disabled.”

When it comes to SALT, Malliotakis said, she is constantly reminding leaders about the tax priority. She even gave Smith some “salted caramels” Thursday as a Valentine’s Day treat.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com