Budget Plan Includes Possible Cuts For Social Security

     From the Washington Post(emphasis added):

House Republicans unveiled a 2018 budget plan Tuesday that would pave the way for ambitious tax reform legislation — but only alongside a package of politically sensitive spending cuts that threaten to derail the tax rewrite before it begins. ...

The House Budget Committee blueprint, which is set for a Thursday committee vote, sets out special procedures that could ultimately allow Republicans to pass legislation over the objections of Senate Democrats who can normally block bills they oppose. GOP leaders in the House, as well as top Trump administration officials, hope to use those procedures — known as reconciliation — to pass a tax overhaul later this year. ...

Unlike Trump’s budget, the House proposal cuts into Medicare and Social Security — entitlement programs that the president has pledged to preserve. ...

The Ways and Means Committee, which is drafting the tax bill, would be instructed to find $52 billion in deficit savings over the coming decade. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and the panel’s chairman, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Tex.), have said they intend to pursue a deficit-neutral reform bill, meaning the savings would have to be found in other programs under the committee’s jurisdiction — such as Medicare, disability aid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and unemployment compensation. ...

     Note that a budget plan only gives top line numbers -- gross amounts of appropriations in broad categories and gross amounts of savings to be achieved from broad categories of programs without specifying exactly what gets cut. Congress would then have to pass bills specifying exactly which agencies get how much for what purposes and exactly what would be cut to achieve the promised savings. Enacting a budget is tough enough. Enacting the appropriations and reconcilation bills needed to fulfill the budget is much tougher still.