Considering their new majority in the 118th Congress, House Republicans are stating clearly that they want to push for changes to entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare.
Following requests from a group of conservatives who supported electing House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) over the weekend, they have plans to attack healthcare programs. These far-right lawmakers want to decrease the budget across the board to address the rising national debt.
However, the Small House GOP majority is much more divided over cuts to defense expenditure than it is over cuts to entitlement programs—McCarthy can risk losing just 4 votes on any bill.
Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), a former Army Green Beret, stated in a Monday interview on Fox Business: “I’m all for a balanced budget, but we’re not going to do it on the backs of our warriors and our military.” “If we speak about debt and expenditure, entitlement programs are where to start.”
McCarthy promised to cap spending for the following year at fiscal 2022 levels as part of his list of concessions to conservatives. This would represent a more than $130 billion reduction from last month’s $1.7 trillion government funding package.
Rep. Chip Roy claims that Republicans have no plans to change benefits for current beneficiaries of Social Security and Medicare (R-Texas).
