Â鶹ŮÓÅ

Senate Republicans on Wednesday released an austere budget that maintains strict caps on military spending and cuts trillions of dollars from health care and welfare, sending a rebuff to their House colleagues. ... Over all, the Senate version hews closely to the budgetary intent of the House proposal. It repeals the Affordable Care Act, turns Medicaid and food stamps into block grants and cuts domestic programs to balance the budget by 2025 without tax increases. The Senate budget also relies on a significant gimmick: It repeals the health law but also assumes that $2 trillion from the law’s tax increases continues to flow into the Treasury. (Weisman, 3/18)

Senate Republicans unveiled a 2016 budget blueprint on Wednesday that will match the House GOP’s ambition to eliminate the annual federal deficit over a decade, but provided fewer details on how safety-net programs would be changed to provide the savings. ... The Senate Republican budget would reduce spending by $5.1 trillion over 10 years, slightly less than the House’s proposal for $5.5 trillion in reductions over that period. Both chambers rely on repealing the Affordable Care Act, shifting more responsibility to the states for Medicaid and food stamps, and making changes to Medicare for the bulk of their savings. (Peterson and Timiraos, 3/18)

House and Senate Republicans have resurrected efforts to curb spending for Medicare and other safety-net programs, releasing budgets this week that bring government entitlements back to the center of political conversation. ... The plan, the first budget from Senate Republicans since they took control of the chamber, provides few details on how or where Congress would produce those savings from Medicare and other so-called entitlement programs. ... The plan provides a measure of political protection to Senate Republicans who could face tough 2016 re-election contests in swing and Democratic-leaning states. (Hook and Peterson, 3/18)

The 10-year fiscal blueprint achieves balance, raises no new taxes, repeals Obamacare, but keeps Medicare and Social Security intact. ... It is a more modest vision than the House GOP budget unveiled Tuesday, which reaches balance faster, includes deeper spending cuts to domestic programs, and fundamentally overhauls the Medicare system. The House plan would convert Medicare from a guaranteed benefit to a "premium support" system where future retirees would purchase insurance with government subsidies on the private market. (Davis, 3/18)

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi's plan, like the House of Representatives plan, has little to no chance of becoming law as is. Instead, both mark the onset of the annual congressional budget battle and a test of Republicans' ability to get things done since winning control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 2006. (Lawder, 3/8)

Differences over military money, and other aspects of the Republican budgets -- including a Medicare overhaul -- risk leaving the GOP unable to pass their budget, something they criticized Democrats for failing to do when they controlled Congress. The setback would derail not only the GOP goal of increasing the Pentagon coffers, but also other party priorities this year -- including the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. (Mascaro, 3/18)

Senate Republicans want to use a powerful budget maneuver known as reconciliation to go after President Barack Obama’s health care law — particularly if the Supreme Court strikes down key provisions of Obamacare this June. Using the fast-tracking procedure offers some advantage for Republicans, largely because a reconciliation package can’t be filibustered. (Kim, 3/18)

House Republicans are taking aim at the government’s largest health care programs in their 2016 budget blueprint, which they claim would cut spending by $5.5 trillion over the next decade. From a complete repeal of Obamacare to overhauling Medicare and transforming Medicaid into block grants, the House GOP’s $3.8 trillion budget plan would balance the budget by 2026. (Ehley, 3/18)