On Monday, congressional Democrats introduced a budget resolution calling for an approximately $1.9 trillion budget reconciliation measure, in a move that deviates from President Biden’s efforts at achieving bipartisanship on increased COVID spending. It also could have significant knock-on effects, as current law and Senate procedure mean that a Democrat-only reconciliation bill could reduce Medicare spending to fund subsidies for the affluent.
The effects come from statutory pay-as-you-go (or PAYGO) intended to ensure that Congress offsets tax reductions or spending increases. Last year, Congress declared several COVID-19 bills as “emergency” spending, exempting them from PAYGO requirements.
But Senate procedures mean that Democrats likely cannot add a PAYGO exemption to a COVID-19 bill considered via budget reconciliation. The 2017 Republican Tax Cuts and Jobs Act faced a similar dilemma, an offshoot of passing the bill through reconciliation, rather than normal procedures requiring 60 Senate votes.
The statutory PAYGO law requires the Office of Management and Budget to keep a running tally of the fiscal impacts of all enacted legislation. If at the end of the congressional session its scorecard shows a net deficit increase over either the five-year or ten-year budget windows, then OMB must order a sequester of mandatory spending to offset the deficit increase.
They better Leave that the Hell Alone & also OUR Social Security or they will have one Hell-ova Revolution !!!!