House Approves GOP Budget Plan; Senate To Take Up Its Version

The New York Times: Increased Military Spending Wins Out After Dueling Budget Votes In House
House Republicans beat back protests from fiscal hawks and narrowly passed a budget that increases war spending but slashes domestic programs and begins to privatize Medicare with a goal of balancing the federal books in nine years. ... That triumph for more military spending was an anomaly in the budget blueprint, which would cut spending $5.5 trillion over the next decade. It also includes parliamentary language, called reconciliation, that orders House committees to draft legislation repealing the Affordable Care Act. Under budget rules, that reconciliation repeal bill cannot be filibustered in the Senate and would need only a majority vote to pass. The budget would turn Medicaid into block grants to the states, cutting health care spending for the poor by $900 billion. (Weisman, 3/25)

Politico: House Approves GOP Budget Blueprint
After two weeks of backroom negotiations with fiscal conservatives and defense hawks, the House approved a spending blueprint that would balance the budget in a decade, transform Medicare and Medicaid, prevent tax increases and repeal Obamacare. ... With only 188 members, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and her fellow Democrats had little hope of derailing the GOP resolution once Boehner was able to pacify both defense and fiscal hawks. But it didn’t stop Democrats from trying. Pelosi was especially critical of Republican plans to hold another vote to repeal Obamacare, noting there is no way for such an effort to succeed while Obama sits in the Oval Office. (Bresnahan, Sherman and Bade, 3/25)

The Associated Press: GOP-Controlled House OKs Balanced Budget Plan
The vote in favor of the plan was 228-199. The blueprint itself is non-binding, but sets Republicans on a path to pass legislation that repeals the health care law, remakes Medicare and overhauls the tax code, in addition to other steps to implement their plan. The GOP-controlled Senate is at work on a slightly different budget plan, with a vote expected by week's end. (3/25)

Los Angeles Times: House GOP Approves Budget To Hike Defense, Slash Safety-Net Programs
House Republicans pushed past their internal divisions to approve a budget blueprint Wednesday, putting the new Congress on track to notch a significant achievement once Senate Republicans pass their version by the end of the week. The ambitious but largely symbolic spending proposals adhere to Republican ideas for slashing social safety-net programs and lowering tax rates. ... The House and Senate must reconcile their different versions, which could prove difficult. The House plan overhauls Medicare by creating a voucher-like option for seniors to purchase private health insurance. Senate Republicans have distanced themselves from that approach and did not include it in their budget. (Mascaro, 3/25)

The Washington Post: How Boehner Got A Much-Needed Win On The Budget
The Senate is working toward passing its own budget plan later in the week. It has begun voting on a heap of amendments, a process that could keep lawmakers at work late Thursday into Friday morning. Once both chambers pass a budget, they will have to hash out the differences in a conference. If they reach a compromise, it would pave the way for a simple majority vote in the Senate on repealing President Obama's signature health-care law under a process known as reconciliation. The Price budget calls for repealing the law. While Obama would be certain to veto such legislation if it ever made it to his desk, it would be a vehicle for conservatives to register their lingering frustration with the law without facing a filibuster. (Sullivan, 3/25)

The Wall Street Journal: House Passes $3.8 Trillion Fiscal 2016 GOP Budget
Passage of the House GOP budget overcomes the first—and likely the highest—hurdle in Republicans’ quest to clear a unified spending blueprint through both chambers of Congress. ... Hard-fought passage of the budget marked a moment of vindication for House Republican leaders, who have suffered a series of embarrassments this year when they were forced to pull GOP bills from the floor and pass legislation with the help of Democrats. (Peterson, 3/25)

Reuters: House Republican Budget Crosses Finish Line, Barely
Overcoming internal divisions on defense spending, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday narrowly approved a non-binding federal budget plan calling for $5.5 trillion in domestic spending cuts over 10 years. The vote meant that House Speaker John Boehner avoided what could have been another embarrassing rebuke from his party's right flank. Instead, a complex series of votes engineered by Boehner succeeded and moved the budget issue to the Senate. (Lawder, 3/25)

The Associated Press: Senate Up Next After House Passes Bold Conservative Budget
The Senate is up next after House Republicans pushed through a boldly conservative budget eliminating deficits over the next decade by cutting deeply into Medicaid, food stamps and welfare, and repealing the president’s health care law. ... Both plans squeezed trillions by undoing so-called Obamacare and cutting Medicaid and other programs, but there were differences. House Republicans would convert Medicare into a voucher-like program, while Senate Republicans, eyeing the 2016 campaign in which they must defend their newly won majority, omitted such an approach. (Werner and Espo, 3/26)

The Hill: Senators Split On Medicare Budget Amendments
Senators blocked a Democrat-led Medicare amendment Wednesday from being included in the budget, but passed a Republican amendment on the health plan. Senators voted 46-53 on procedural motion, after Democrats tried to override the decision of Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) to block the Dems' amendment. (Carney, 3/25)