Questions for House Republicans on Their FY 2016 Budget Resolution

As House Republicans unveil their Fiscal Year 2016 budget resolution today, all signs point to another budget filled with empty rhetoric and partisan gimmicks instead of the tough choices needed to address our country’s fiscal challenges. While House Democrats continue to promote policies that grow the economy and ensure more Americans can access middle class opportunities, House Republicans continue to disinvest in our nation’s future and attempt to balance the budget on the backs of the most vulnerable Americans. As Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price unveils this unrealistic, unworkable budget resolution, here are the top 10 questions reporters should ask:

1. How can our country invest in a more competitive economy over the long-term if House Republicans keep in place the sequester caps on non-defense spending this year and cut far below sequester levels in future years?
2. Why did Republicans again rely on a “magic asterisk” to make it look like your budget will balance in nine years? Do you have any more detail on exactly what policies would achieve the $1.1 trillion in cuts you vaguely refer to as “other mandatory” in your budget?
3. Your budget resolution pretends to abide by sequester-level spending caps this year, yet it allocates $36 billion more in Overseas Contingency Operations war funding than was requested by the Pentagon. Isn’t this a way of trying to hide the tensions between your party’s dueling factions – the defense hawks and the budget hawks – by pretending you’re sticking to spending caps, when you’re not?
4. If you repeal the Affordable Care Act, which has achieved the lowest rate of uninsured in four decades, what is your plan to ensure that Americans can still access quality, affordable health care?  
5. If you block grant Medicaid and nutrition assistance programs, how do you know that state governments won’t use the funding to pay for other programs and reduce their own spending on those programs, as the Congressional Budget Office warned of yesterday?
6. How do you expect seniors to afford increased health care costs if you end the Medicare guarantee?
7. Why does your budget ignore the hundreds of billions of dollars in lost revenue, as scored by the Joint Committee on Taxation, from the permanent tax extender bills that Republicans have brought to the Floor?
8. How many fewer children will be able to access programs like Head Start because you cut below sequester spending level caps in future years?
9. How do you expect more students to afford higher education when you freeze Pell grant funding?
10. Would any “macroeconomic effects” of your budget be distributed evenly to Americans of all incomes, or would the poor be left out of any gains made, given that they are bearing the burden of your budget proposals?

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