Overview
- House Republican leaders, confirmed by Axios on Monday, are exploring a reconciliation bill that pairs the Pentagon’s roughly $200 billion Iran operations request with domestic spending cuts.
- Budget Chair Jodey Arrington has floated reviving Affordable Care Act cost-sharing offsets and cracking down on what he calls fraud in programs like the earned income tax credit and low-income housing tax credits.
- Cost-sharing reductions help low-income enrollees pay deductibles and co-pays, and the CBO estimates restoring the policy would save about $30 billion while raising some premiums and leaving roughly 300,000 more people uninsured by 2034.
- The plan is still in early talks and faces resistance from Republicans such as Sen. Rand Paul and Reps. Lauren Boebert, Chip Roy, and Thomas Massie, who oppose more Iran war funding or demand clear objectives.
- Republicans advanced large health cuts last year, and using reconciliation again would let them pass budget changes with a simple majority as moderates warn that fresh health reductions could be a hard sell in an election year.