Our Analysis:

Sponsors identified the major provisions in the bill:

 

• Reducing Spending. This budget proposes to bring spending on domestic government agencies to below 2008 levels and freezes this category for 5 years. The savings proposals in the budget are numerous, and include reforming agricultural subsidies, shrinking the Federal workforce through a sensible attrition policy, and accepting Defense Secretary Gates' plan to target inefficiencies at the Pentagon.

• Welfare Reform. The budget will build upon the historic welfare reforms of the late 1990s by converting the Federal share of Medicaid spending into a block grant that lets States create a range of options and gives Medicaid patients access to better care. The budget proposes similar reforms to food stamps, ending the flawed incentive structure that rewards States for adding to the program's rolls. Finally, this budget recognizes that the best welfare program is one that ends with a job: it consolidates dozens of duplicative job-training programs into more accessible, accountable career scholarships that will better serve people looking for work.

• While strengthening welfare programs for those who need them, the budget calls for eliminating welfare for those who do not. It targets corporate welfare, first by ending the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that is costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. It gets rid of the permanent Wall Street bailout authority that Congress created last year. It rolls back expensive handouts for uncompetitive sources of energy, calling instead for a free and open marketplace for energy development, innovation, and exploration.

• Health and Retirement Security. The budget's reforms will protect health and retirement security. This starts with saving Medicare. The open-ended, blank-check nature of the Medicare subsidy threatens the solvency of this critical program and creates inexcusable levels of waste. This budget takes action where others have ducked--but because government should reorient its policies without forcing people to reorganize their lives, the budget's reforms will not affect those in or near retirement in any way.

• Starting in 2022, new Medicare beneficiaries will be enrolled in the same kind of health care program that members of Congress enjoy. Future Medicare recipients will be able to choose a plan that works best for them from a list of guaranteed coverage options. This is not a voucher program, but rather a premium-support model. A Medicare premium-support payment would be paid, by Medicare, to the plan chosen by the beneficiary, subsidizing its cost.

• In addition, Medicare will provide increased assistance for lower-income beneficiaries and those with greater health risks. Reform that empowers individuals--with more help for the poor and the sick--will guarantee that Medicare can fulfill the promise of health security for America's seniors.

• Congress must also reform Social Security to prevent severe cuts to future benefits. This budget calls for policymakers to work together to enact common-sense reforms. The goal of this proposal is to achieve a solution similar to the plan the President's bipartisan Fiscal Commission put forward to save Social Security for current retirees and strengthen it for future generations.

• Budget Enforcement. It is not enough to change how much government spends; Congress also must change how government spends. Therefore, this budget proposes process reforms--including real, enforceable caps on spending--to make sure government spends and taxes only as much as it needs to fulfill its constitutionally prescribed roles.

• Tax Reform. The budget would focus on growth by reforming the Nation's outdated tax code, consolidating brackets, lowering tax rates, and assuming top individual and corporate rates of 25 percent. It maintains a revenue-neutral approach by clearing out a burdensome tangle of deductions and loopholes that distort economic activity and leave some corporations paying no income taxes at all.

 

 

Summary:

4/15/2011--Passed House without amendment. (This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The expanded summary of the House reported version is repeated here.) Sets forth the congressional budget for the federal government for FY2012, including the appropriate budgetary levels for FY2013-FY2021. Title I: Recommended Levels and Amounts - (Sec. 101) Lists recommended budgetary levels and amounts for FY2012-FY2021 with respect to: (1) federal revenues, (2) new budget authority, (3) budget outlays, (4) deficits (on-budget), (5) debt subject to limit, and (6) debt held by the public. (Sec. 102) Lists the appropriate levels of new budget authority and outlays for specified major functional categories for FY2012-FY2021. Title II: Recommended Levels and Amounts for FY2030, FY2040, and FY2050 - (Sec. 201) Lists recommended budgetary levels and amounts for FY2030, FY2040, and FY2050 as a percent of the federal gross domestic product (GDP) with respect to: (1) federal revenues, (2) budget outlays, (3) deficits, and (4) debt held by the public. Title III: Reserve and Contingencies - (Sec. 301) Authorizes adjustment of allocations to the House Committee on Appropriations for the costs of the global war on terrorism and other activities for FY2012 if legislation makes appropriations for such costs and it is designated under this resolution. (Sec. 303) Authorizes certain reserve funds for legislation for health care reform and the sustainable growth rate of the Medicare program. (Sec. 305) Authorizes certain deficit-neutral reserve funds for revenue measures and for rural counties and schools. Title IV: Budget Enforcement - (Sec. 401) Establishes specified discretionary spending limits in the House for FY2012-FY2021. Makes it out of order to consider in the House any legislation that would cause the discretionary spending limits in this section to be exceeded. (Sec. 402) Prohibits House legislation that would require advance appropriations, except certain FY2013 programs, projects, activities, or accounts. (Sec. 404) Authorizes the chairman of the House Committee on the Budget, under specified conditions, to adjust allocations and aggregates in this resolution for the budgetary effects of: (1) measures extending the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001; (2) measures extending the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003; (3) measures that adjust the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) exemption amounts to prevent a larger number of taxpayers as compared with tax year 2008 from being subject to the ATM or of allowing the use of nonrefundable personal credits against it, or both as applicable; (4) extending the estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax requirements of title III of the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010; (5) measures implementing trade agreements; (6) repealing or reforming the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010; and (7) measures reforming the tax code and lower tax rates. Disqualifies measures from such adjustments that increase: (1) the federal deficit between FY2012-FY2021; or (2) revenues over such period, other than by repealing or modifying the individual mandate or by modifying the subsidies to purchase health insurance (both codified in the Internal Revenue Code). Declares that, if a committee other than the Committee on Appropriations reports legislation that decreases direct spending (budget authority and outlays) for any fiscal year and also that authorizes appropriations for the same purpose, upon the enactment of such measure, the chairman of the Committee on the Budget may decrease the allocation to such committee and increase the allocation of discretionary spending to the Committee on Appropriations for FY2012 and the applicable discretionary spending limits by an amount equal to the new budget authority and outlays provided for in legislation making appropriations for the same purpose. (Sec. 405) Makes it out of order in the House to consider legislation reported out of committee (other than the Committee on Appropriations) if it has the net effect of increasing mandatory spending in excess of $5 billion for any of the first four consecutive 10-fiscal-year periods beginning with the first fiscal year following the last fiscal year for which the applicable budget resolution sets forth appropriate budgetary levels. (Sec. 406) Requires the joint explanatory statement accompanying the conference report on any budget resolution to include in its allocation to the House Committee on Appropriations amounts for the discretionary administrative expenses of the Social Security Administration (SSA) and of the Postal Service. Authorizes the chairman to adjust allocations and aggregates for legislation reported by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that reforms the federal retirement system, but does not cause a net increase in the deficit for FY2012-FY2021. (Sec. 408) Requires any CBO estimate prepared for a measure under the Federal Credit Reform Act also to provide, as a supplement, and to the extent practicable, upon the request of the chairman or ranking member of the Committee on the Budget, an estimate of the current actual or estimated market values representing the"fair value"of assets and liabilities affected by such measure. Authorizes the chairman to use such estimate to determine compliance with the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 and other budgetary enforcement controls. (Sec. 409) Terminates the force and effect of H.Res. 5 (112th Congress) provisions relating to: (1) advance appropriations, (2) the treatment of off-budget administrative expenses, and (3) a long-term spending point of order. Title V: Policy - (Sec. 501) Declares the policy on this resolution on: (1) Medicare reform, (2) Social Security, and (3) budget enforcement. Title VI: Sense of the House Provisions - (Sec. 601) Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives on: (1) a responsible deficit reduction plan must consider all programs, including those at the Pentagon and other national security agencies; and (2) the importance of child support enforcement.

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