<span id="midArticle_start"/><span id="midArticle_0"/> (Reuters) - Republican budgetnegotiators on Monday reached a compromise deal for the firstjoint House-Senate budget in six years, one that seeks to boostmilitary spending while calling for deep cuts to social programsto eliminate deficits in a decade.
<span id="midArticle_1"/>But congressional aides said the deal, to be formallyunveiled on Tuesday, will stop well short of directingappropriations committees to actually implement those cuts.
<span id="midArticle_2"/>Instead, it will focus on the use of budget procedural toolson repealing or replacing President Barack Obama's signaturehealth reform legislation, the aides said.
<span id="midArticle_3"/>Passing a budget will allow Republicans the opportunity touse budget "reconciliation" procedures to dismantle "Obamacare"with only a simple majority vote in the Senate, rather than anear-impossible 60 vote margin that would require someDemocratic support.
<span id="midArticle_4"/>As reported by Reuters last week, the compromise budget willexclude Representative Paul Ryan's longstanding proposals toconvert the Medicare health program for seniors to a system ofsubsidies for largely private health insurance.
<span id="midArticle_5"/>The House of Representatives had included the Medicarereforms in its budget for a fifth straight year, calling for thechanges to start in 2024. But the more cautious Senate did notinclude the proposals, adopting similar savings goals for theprogram as Obama proposed.
<span id="midArticle_6"/>The Republican budget will nominally maintain statutory"sequester" spending caps for the military and domestic federalagencies for the 2016 fiscal year starting Oct. 1. But at thesame time it skirts the caps by providing an additional $38billion in military spending via a special off-budget accountfor war operations.
<span id="midArticle_7"/>The final language is expected to drop Senate language thatwould have required such war funding to be offset with othersavings.
<span id="midArticle_8"/>While the budget will help guide the process of craftingspending bills for the next fiscal year, most of it isnon-binding and represents a policy manifesto for Republicanswho now control both chambers of Congress.
<span id="midArticle_9"/>Once the budget is passed, the fiscal debate will shift to aseparate effort to find other savings or revenue increases to ease the sequester spending constraints that were enacted in a2011 budget law.
<span id="midArticle_10"/>If Congress fails to lift the spending caps, military anddomestic agency spending next year would stay flat at about $1trillion, the same level as a decade ago. This also would makepassage of spending bills more difficult, raising the risk of agovernment shutdown on Oct. 1. (Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh andDavid Gregorio)
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<span id="midArticle_1"/>But congressional aides said the deal, to be formallyunveiled on Tuesday, will stop well short of directingappropriations committees to actually implement those cuts.
<span id="midArticle_2"/>Instead, it will focus on the use of budget procedural toolson repealing or replacing President Barack Obama's signaturehealth reform legislation, the aides said.
<span id="midArticle_3"/>Passing a budget will allow Republicans the opportunity touse budget "reconciliation" procedures to dismantle "Obamacare"with only a simple majority vote in the Senate, rather than anear-impossible 60 vote margin that would require someDemocratic support.
<span id="midArticle_4"/>As reported by Reuters last week, the compromise budget willexclude Representative Paul Ryan's longstanding proposals toconvert the Medicare health program for seniors to a system ofsubsidies for largely private health insurance.
<span id="midArticle_5"/>The House of Representatives had included the Medicarereforms in its budget for a fifth straight year, calling for thechanges to start in 2024. But the more cautious Senate did notinclude the proposals, adopting similar savings goals for theprogram as Obama proposed.
<span id="midArticle_6"/>The Republican budget will nominally maintain statutory"sequester" spending caps for the military and domestic federalagencies for the 2016 fiscal year starting Oct. 1. But at thesame time it skirts the caps by providing an additional $38billion in military spending via a special off-budget accountfor war operations.
<span id="midArticle_7"/>The final language is expected to drop Senate language thatwould have required such war funding to be offset with othersavings.
<span id="midArticle_8"/>While the budget will help guide the process of craftingspending bills for the next fiscal year, most of it isnon-binding and represents a policy manifesto for Republicanswho now control both chambers of Congress.
<span id="midArticle_9"/>Once the budget is passed, the fiscal debate will shift to aseparate effort to find other savings or revenue increases to ease the sequester spending constraints that were enacted in a2011 budget law.
<span id="midArticle_10"/>If Congress fails to lift the spending caps, military anddomestic agency spending next year would stay flat at about $1trillion, the same level as a decade ago. This also would makepassage of spending bills more difficult, raising the risk of agovernment shutdown on Oct. 1. (Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh andDavid Gregorio)
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