Senate Budget Is More Irresponsible Than the House

Oct 24, 2017

The House of Representatives is expected to vote this week to adopt the Senate’s budget resolution, rather than support their own budget resolution and iron out the differences in a conference committee. The Senate budget is far more irresponsible than the House budget, and the House should not blindly accept it.

	House Budget		Senate Budget
Balances the budget in ten years		Contains enough savings on paper that there would be a small surplus in 2027		Only achieves an “on-budget” surplus (excluding Social Security), leaving a $149 billion deficit in 2027
Requires tax cuts to be offset by spending cuts		Calls for revenue-neutral tax reform. Further tax cuts must be offset by spending cuts		Calls for a tax reform bill that increases deficits up to $1.5 trillion over 10 years
Provides for spending reductions		Includes reconciliation instructions for >$200 billion in savings over 10 years from 11 different committees		Minimum required savings target is just $1 billion (out of $47 trillion possible spending), from one committee
Establishes a process to reduce deficits		Net likely impact of reconciliation instructions would be at least $230 billion savings over 10 years		Net likely impact of reconciliation instructions could be $1.8 trillion in additional deficits over 10 years
Offsets increased discretionary spending above caps		Increases defense spending, but by a smaller amount than the mandatory savings it calls for		Allows defense spending to be increased without offsets
CRFB Summary	Here		Here