WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has passed a $4.1 trillion budget plan that promises deep cuts to social programs and Cabinet agency budgets, but whose chief purpose is to set the stage for a comprehensive GOP overhaul of the U.S. tax code later this year.
The measure won approval along party lines.
The plan calls for more than $5 trillion in spending cuts over the coming decade, including a plan to turn Medicare into a voucher-like program for future retirees, slash Medicaid, and repeal the “Obamacare” health law.
But Republicans are not actually planning to impose any of those cuts with follow-up legislation that would be required under Washington’s Byzantine budget rules. Instead, the motivating force behind the budget measures is the Republicans’ party-defining drive rewrite the tax code.