With the GOP tax plan contributing to rising federal deficits, Democrats are warning that Republicans will seek cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security to balance budgets if they keep control of Congress in the November election.
It's a familiar message for Democrats, who have for years campaigned on the idea that Republicans want to gut the "entitlement" programs. Republicans say they want to put those benefit programs on better financial footing and tame the deficit.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell fueled the campaign attack when he said this week that entitlement spending, not the Republican tax plan, is responsible for the increasing deficits that are now on track to top $1 trillion — a level unseen since the aftermath of the Great Recession.
"This is the exact Republican playbook we've seen time after time," said Rep. John Yarmuth, a Kentucky Democrat who's in line to become Budget Committee chairman if Democrats win control of the House. He spoke on a Democratic conference call Wednesday with reporters.
Republicans promised their $1.5 trillion tax law — which was supposed to spur economic growth by cutting individual and corporate rates — would pay for itself. But with federal revenues lagging and deficits climbing, McConnell said the problem is the entitlement spending that accounts for most of the federal government outlays.
"It's disappointing, but it's not a Republican problem," McConnell said in a Tuesday interview with Bloomberg News. "It's a bipartisan problem: unwillingness to address the real drivers of the debt by doing anything to adjust those programs to the demographics of America in the future."
Democrats seized on McConnell's comments as a sign Republicans will put entitlements on the chopping block.
Rep. Cheri Bustos of Illinois, a co-chair of the Democratic policy committee, said McConnell is like a "thief" caught in mid-act but denying responsibility for the situation. She said he "showed his hand."
As Democrats sought the political high ground, President Donald Trump stepped into the fiscal debate on Wednesday by urging members of his administration to cut back on their spending in the next fiscal year. Dubbing it the "nickel plan," Trump said he's asking every Cabinet secretary to cut their budget request by 5 percent.
Yet cuts of that magnitude would do little to stem the nation's red ink. The president has also proposed steep cuts in previous budgets, only to have them ignored by Congress.
McConnell, meanwhile, has given little indication that entitlement reform is on his to-do list for the next Congress. Republicans have a good chance of retaining the Senate majority in the election, but control of the House is uncertain.
In fact, McConnell has largely shied from the kind of big-ticket reforms the House has passed, including Speaker Paul Ryan's proposals to revamp Medicare into a voucher-like program and make steep cuts to Medicaid. Republican senators have been less supportive of those plans.
Changing entitlement programs would be a heavy lift for Congress. Lawmakers debated several proposals during President Barack Obama's tenure, including changes to Social Security, only to have the effort collapse in failure after months of negotiations.
Democrats, though, heard enough in McConnell's comments to sound the alarm as they battle for control of Congress in November.
"This is the classic Republican bait and switch," said Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who chairs the Senate Democrats' campaign committee.
"All of our candidates will be zeroing in on this issue," he said. "I'm sure all of our candidates will be letting voters know."
The Treasury Department reported this week that deficits climbed to $779 billion in fiscal 2018, which ended last month, and are on track to top $1 trillion next year under President Donald Trump, a level not seen since 2012.
At that time, revenues were plunging because of the economic downturn and the government was spending more to counter the crisis, including through Obama's stimulus law.
Now, Treasury says revenues are not keeping pace with spending. The tax cuts Trump signed into law last year slashed rates for corporations, the wealthy and many middle- and lower-income families. Meanwhile, government spending continues to grow, in large part on health care outlays with the aging population.
While the tax cuts did spur economic growth, they have not yet generated enough to fully offset the lost revenue. Many Republicans predicted the tax law would pay for itself.
Yarmuth noted that the Trump's tax returns — and the amount of taxes the Trump family contributes to the federal government — would be something the Democrats would be interested in looking into if they take control of the House.
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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia on Wednesday vetoed a U.N. resolution sponsored by the United States and Japan calling on all nations to prevent a dangerous nuclear arms race in outer space, calling it “a dirty spectacle” that cherry picks weapons of mass destruction from all other weapons that should also be banned.
The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 13 in favor, Russia opposed and China abstaining.
The resolution would have called on all countries not to develop or deploy nuclear arms or other weapons of mass destruction in space, as banned under a 1967 international treaty that included the U.S. and Russia, and to agree to the need to verify compliance.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said after the vote that Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space.
“Today’s veto begs the question: Why? Why, if you are following the rules, would you not support a resolution that reaffirms them? What could you possibly be hiding,” she asked. “It’s baffling. And it’s a shame.”
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia dismissed the resolution as “absolutely absurd and politicized,” and said it didn’t go far enough in banning all types of weapons in space.
Russia and China proposed an amendment to the U.S.-Japan draft that would call on all countries, especially those with major space capabilities, “to prevent for all time the placement of weapons in outer space, and the threat of use of force in outer spaces.”
The vote was 7 countries in favor, 7 against, and one abstention and the amendment was defeated because it failed to get the minimum 9 “yes” votes required for adoption.
The U.S. opposed the amendment, and after the vote Nebenzia addressed the U.S. ambassador saying: “We want a ban on the placement of weapons of any kind in outer space, not just WMDs (weapons of mass destruction). But you don’t want that. And let me ask you that very same question. Why?”
He said much of the U.S. and Japan’s actions become clear “if we recall that the U.S. and their allies announced some time ago plans to place weapons … in outer space.”
Nebenzia accused the U.S. of blocking a Russian-Chinese proposal since 2008 for a treaty against putting weapons in outer space.
Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia of undermining global treaties to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, irresponsibly invoking “dangerous nuclear rhetoric,” walking away from several of its arms control obligations, and refusing to engage “in substantive discussions around arms control or risk reduction.”
She called Wednesday’s vote “a real missed opportunity to rebuild much-needed trust in existing arms control obligations.”
Thomas-Greenfield’s announcement of the resolution on March 18 followed White House confirmation in February that Russia has obtained a “troubling” anti-satellite weapon capability, although such a weapon is not operational yet.
Putin declared later that Moscow has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space, claiming that the country has only developed space capabilities similar to those of the U.S.
Thomas-Greenfield said before the vote that the world is just beginning to understand “the catastrophic ramifications of a nuclear explosion in space.”
It could destroy “thousands of satellites operated by countries and companies around the world — and wipe out the vital communications, scientific, meteorological, agricultural, commercial, and national security services we all depend on,” she said.
The defeated draft resolution said “the prevention of an arms race in outer space would avert a grave danger for international peace and security.” It would have urged all countries carrying out activities in exploring and using outer space to comply with international law and the U.N. Charter.
The draft would have affirmed that countries that ratified the 1967 Outer Space Treaty must comply with their obligations not to put in orbit around the Earth “any objects” with weapons of mass destruction, or install them “on celestial bodies, or station such weapons in outer space.”
The treaty, ratified by some 114 countries, including the U.S. and Russia, prohibits the deployment of “nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction” in orbit or the stationing of “weapons in outer space in any other manner.”
The draft resolution emphasized “the necessity of further measures, including political commitments and legally binding instruments, with appropriate and effective provisions for verification, to prevent an arms race in outer space in all its aspects.”
It reiterated that the U.N. Conference on Disarmament, based in Geneva, has the primary responsibility to negotiate agreements on preventing an arms race in outer space.
The 65-nation body has achieved few results and has largely devolved into a venue for countries to voice criticism of others’ weapons programs or defend their own. The draft resolution would have urged the conference “to adopt and implement a balanced and comprehensive program of work.”
At the March council meeting where the U.S.-Japan initiative was launched, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned that “geopolitical tensions and mistrust have escalated the risk of nuclear warfare to its highest point in decades.”
He said the movie “Oppenheimer” about Robert Oppenheimer, who directed the U.S. project during World War II that developed the atomic bomb, “brought the harsh reality of nuclear doomsday to vivid life for millions around the world.”
“Humanity cannot survive a sequel to Oppenheimer,” the U.N. chief said.
United States Ambassador and Representative to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield addresses members of the U.N. Security Council before voting during a meeting on Non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, Wednesday, April 24, 2024 at United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
FILE - U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks on Thursday, April 18, 2024, in Tokyo. The U.N. Security Council is set to vote Wednesday, April 24, 2024, on a resolution announced by Thomas-Greenfield, calling on all nations to prevent a dangerous nuclear arms race in outer space. It is likely to be vetoed by Russia. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool, File)
