sharonparrott.bsky.social
President of Center on Budget and Policy Priorities , formerly OMB/HHS, Nats fan, mom.
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The Social Security Administration's own materials urge in-hospital Social Security number applications saying “there may be delays” if applying in person. www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-1...
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It throws aside 50 years of practice across Republican and Democratic administrations and puts at risk access to lifesaving treatments and vaccinations, to name just a couple of examples of many.
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This is the wrong direction for the country. Congress should start over & craft a budget that lowers costs and invests in people and families, while raising the revenues from the wealthy to make those investments & reduce economic risks associated with high debt.
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Outside of the reconciliation instructions, the House budget plan calls for more unspecified cuts, including to the part of the budget that funds schools, college grants, medical research, flight safety, clean air & water, & customer service at the Social Security Admin & the IRS.
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Cuts to food assistance mean a parent skips meals so their children can eat or an older person who lost their job has no way to buy groceries.
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And these aren’t just numbers. The loss of Medicaid means, for example, a parent can’t get cancer treatment, and a young adult can’t get insulin to control their diabetes.
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The amounts that the committee are directed to cut are minimums or “floors” – meaning they must cut at least that amount and may cut more, but they cannot cut less. And a change made in the House budget committee makes deeper cuts more likely. x.com/jacsamoby/st...
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We know this because it directs the committees w/ jurisdiction over health coverage through Medicaid, food assistance through SNAP, & student loans & school meals to make massive cuts to offset some of the cost of massive tax cuts assigned to the Ways and Means Committee.
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That course would raise families’ health care, food, & college costs, increase the nation’s economic risks, take health coverage away from millions & worsen poverty & hardship for tens of millions of people, while doubling down on huge tax giveaways for the wealthy & corporations.
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House R leaders are reportedly telling members not to worry about the deep cuts it contains bc passing it is just a 1st step toward budget legislation. But the budget plan sets the “rules of the road” & once that course is set, it is very hard to change. x.com/ParrottCBPP/...
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The House plan lays the groundwork for one “mega” reconciliation bill – and House leadership is pressing the Senate to acquiesce to their vision.
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Attention now shifts to the House, which is expected to vote next week on House Republicans’ own misguided budget plan: an extreme giveaway to the wealthy at the expense of families who already have a hard time affording food, health care & college.
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And while the Senate plan adheres to Senate Republican leaders’ view that the tax cuts & offsets to pay for them should wait for a second fast-track reconciliation bill, it still sets out their broader vision by including massive unspecified cuts & huge tax cuts.
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Paul has been a wonderful colleague and mentor to so many. I’m thrilled that as a (new) member of @socialinsurance, I’ll get to continue working with him in his role as NASI Chair. And I wish him all the best in his next chapter.
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Policymakers who don’t want to take the country in this direction should demand that their leaders start over -- not put their hopes on some theoretical escape valve down the road. gonzales.house.gov/2025/2/rep-t...
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It is remarkable that policymakers could put forward an agenda that simultaneously raises costs, takes health care away from people, increases poverty and hardship, makes income inequality worse, and increases the deficit.
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At the same time, the House budget resolution sets a path to use these cuts to pay for trillions in tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.
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These figures are minimums or “floors” – meaning that the committees must cut at least that amount and may cut more, but they cannot cut less. And a change made in the budget committee makes deeper cuts more likely. x.com/jacsamoby/st...
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And it directs the Education & Workforce Committee to cut $330 billion, a target likely to mean making student loans more expensive and could even put school meals at risk too. www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-t...
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It directs the House Agriculture Committee to cut at least $230 billion, widely understood as cuts to SNAP, which help millions of families put food on the table. www.cbpp.org/press/statem...
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Let’s dig into how the House Republican budget’s rules of the road chart this course. It directs the Energy & Commerce Committee to cut at least $880B, which Republicans have said they will hit primarily by cutting Medicaid, which provides coverage to more than 72M people.
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Here’s where that course is headed: an extreme giveaway to the wealthy at the expense of families who already have a hard time affording food, health care & college.
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Those policymakers shouldn’t be fooled. A vote for the House budget plan is NOT a vote to move along the process toward a good outcome. Once the budget resolution sets the “rules of the road” for budget legislation, it is very hard to change course.
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We’ll have more to say so stay tuned for analysis. And, check out our series on the stakes of 2025 budget debates to learn more about how Republican proposals could cause millions of people across the country to lose needed assistance www.cbpp.org/research/fed...
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This budget plan reflects a complete betrayal of the campaign promises by President Trump to protect families who struggle financially.
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We know this because it directs the committees w/ jurisdiction over health coverage through Medicaid, food assistance through SNAP, & student loans & school meals to make massive cuts to offset some of the costs of massive tax cuts assigned to the Ways and Means Committee.
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It would raise families’ health care, food, & college costs, increase the nation’s economic risks, take health coverage away from millions, & worsen poverty & hardship for tens of millions of people, while doubling down on huge tax giveaways for wealthy households & businesses.
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Finally, President Trump’s Inauguration Day executive order ending birthright citizenship conflicts with the plain text of the 14th Amendment – an interpretation affirmed in 1898 by one of the most conservative Supreme Courts in U.S. history.
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On rule changes and amendments, the Administrative Procedure Act requires federal agencies to seek public comment when they promulgate, amend, or repeal rules. The new Administration is repeatedly disregarding its statutory duty to seek public comment before it regulates.
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Freezes: Courts have repeatedly held that the executive branch can’t impound funds. Congress enacted the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 to give the President a legal way to request rescissions of funds. Trump has refused to follow the Act’s procedures & the Constitution.
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Next, David Super, Professor of Law & Economics at Georgetown, discusses the legal problems with many recent Trump Admin measures, focusing on funding freezes, repeal or amendment of rules, & denial of citizenship to children born in the U.S. bit.ly/42SkOjX
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There’s also the potential that payments could be delayed to millions of individuals, including retirees & veterans, and to organizations & businesses providing public services on behalf of the federal government if forcing the system to do things it wasn’t built for breaks it.
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DOGE access to or control over these systems raises serious concerns, including the risk that payments will be illegally stopped based on Musk’s own or the Trump Administration’s political or policy preferences, as well as the risk of severe cybersecurity and privacy breaches.
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First, former OMB & Treasury official Jacob Leibenluft lays out the many problems posed by DOGE access to Treasury payment systems bit.ly/4gANKAf
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In the two-step process the Senate is proposing, the large tax cuts and deep spending cuts would come in a second reconciliation bill later this year; the House wants to do all of this in one step. Both plans are deeply flawed. Policymakers should return to the drawing board.
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As we have argued, responsibly raising revenue from wealthy households and corporations would allow the nation to make high-value investments to improve well-being and broaden prosperity, lower costs, meet our commitments, and improve our fiscal outlook. www.cbpp.org/research/fed...
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There is a better way. Rather than shrinking revenues to 17% of GDP over the decade, the Senate budget should boost revenues to 19-20% of GDP – where they were before 2 1/2 decades of tax cutting began.
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While the fiscal goal of stabilizing the debt ratio is reasonable, the approach laid out in the budget is not. Extending tax cuts including trillions for the wealthy, digging the hole deeper, and slashing public services everyone depends on reflects deeply misguided priorities.
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These hide-the-ball cuts allow the Senate Rs to claim they would reduce the deficit and hold the debt-to-GDP ratio roughly stable over the decade.