On Thursday, House Republicans are expected to vote on a bill that would save $242 billion over 10 years and apply those funds for a small increase in military spending in an attempt to soften the blow from the $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts to the Pentagon’s budget following last summer’s failed deficit-reduction deal. Portions of the GOP-proposed savings would come by scaling back the explosion of food stamps and welfare programs under President Barack Obama.
But the White House says that Republican efforts to spare American troops from the budgetary axe by trimming what the Wall Street Journal calls a “food stamp crime wave” of fraud and abuse are wrongheaded and that Obama would veto such a bill. Specifically, the Obama Administration says the GOP plan would “cost jobs and hurt middle-class and vulnerable Americans.” Furthermore, says the White House, “the bill’s unbalanced provisions fail the test of fairness and shared responsibility.”
According to Reuters, House Democrats are planning to offer an alternative plan to counter the one Republicans have proposed:
House Democrats want to float an alternative plan as an amendment that instead would end tax breaks for big oil companies, raise taxes on millionaires and cut farm subsidies.
The plan also stakes out Democrats’ negotiating stance for dealing with the automatic cuts and provides another campaign-season contrast with Republican spending priorities.
As Breitbart News has reported, since 2008, federal spending on food stamps has more than doubled.