House Republicans’ Budget Bill Doesn’t Spare Veterans. Democrats Are Making Them Regret It.

LOADING ERROR LOADING House Republicans passed a government funding bill last week that would both enact massive federal spending cuts and raise the so-called national debt ceiling for less than a year. The debate over how to characterize the potential effects of House Republicans’ bill revolves around how much credence to give Republican leaders’ spoken assurances that the spending caps would not affect veterans’ benefits. “I will not bring a bill that cuts our veterans,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” But Democrats note that Republicans put their commitment to holding Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid harmless into the bill itself. “Your average voter doesn’t like the idea of debt, and debt is not popular in a vacuum, but when you lay out for people, ‘Oh, what’s being proposed here is holding a lot of these programs that are very popular hostage,’ that changes people’s opinions very quickly.” - Madeline Conway, Democratic pollster Of course, what House Republicans say is that the spending caps are just budget-wide targets rather than across-the-board cuts and that they would protect veterans’ benefits and other sensitive programs in the annual appropriations process. “We’re committed to protecting the safety-net programs.” - Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers Even the office of centrist Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola of Alaska, one of three House Democrats urging McCarthy and Biden to reach an agreement ― rather than pushing for a “clean” debt ceiling increase ― had unkind things to say about the House Republicans’ bill.