Assume the dems win the house presidency and senate by 2020. What should they put in a 2021 budget?
The 1993 budget had a lot of tax hikes in the rich. So something like that to reverse the gop budget of 2017 would be nice. Corporate taxes, income taxes, Medicare taxes, amt, estate tax, etc hiked could be added on the wealthy.
Could anything else be added. Increase the Medicare tax on high income earners to 5%, up from 3.8% now? Can a Medicare buy in be passed via reconciliation? What policy changes could be added? I doubt the dems pass single payer via reconciliation anytime soon, but can they?
Reconciliation specifically prohibits policy changes in the covered legislation. You can have a bill that 99.9999% relates to fiscal matters, and the remainder deals with policy issues, and that bill is not protected by reconciliation procedures.
Reconciliation bills can be passed on spending, revenues, and the federal debt limit[4] once a year per topic unless Congress passes a revised budget resolution for that fiscal year (under section 304 of the Congressional Budget Act).[5] As an example, if a budget resolution’s reconciliation instructions affect both spending and revenues, no further reconciliation legislation can occur on these topics in the same fiscal year without a revised budget resolution.[5]
The effort just repealed the fiscal aspects of the ACA, and left a towering but empty shell in its place. I think the term used was “three pronged strategy” or something like that.
Reconciliation is used for matters that – and I forget the exact term – have a budgetary impact, but that policies that have certain fiscal impacts beyond a ten year term are exempted. See also the 2001 tax cuts.
Out of curiosity–not saying it’s wise–would a massive expansion of Medicare/Medicaid be allowed under reconciliation, as a budgetary move, or would that qualify as policy, or would that be something decided by the quirks of the parliamentarian?
It depends on the precise language in the bill. I doubt, but cannot be certain, that eliminating the age requirement for Medicare could be considered a non-policy provision, for example.
I think that is likely, but a massive tax hike will just mean another flip-flop of control in the next cycle. If you want real, lasting change, you have to have patience. Small steps, being careful not to piss away that wave of momentum all at once. Take the long view.
Trimming defense spending would be another thing to look at. We probably won’t need another fancy aircraft carrier and whatever other stuff the Republicans will have likely put in the budget by 2020 to help out their big defense contractor buddies.