The FY 2014 budget introduced by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray (D-WA) presents a clear alternative to the plan proposed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI). In stark contrast to the Ryan budget, which makes deep cuts to programs that women and families depend on while giving lavish tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans and corporations, the Murray budget proposes new investments in early childhood programs, largely protects core safety net programs, preserves the Affordable Care Act, and advances tax fairness. However, the Murray budget includes some cuts to funding for health care and other domestic programs that could be problematic for women.
Specifically, Chairman Murray’s budget:
- Supports key investments for women, families, and the economy. The Murray budget calls for new investments to expand access to pre-kindergarten, child care, Head Start, Early Head Start and home visiting services for parents with young children – programs that help children prepare to succeed in school and give parents the support they need to work.
The budget also invests in measures to speed up the economic recovery, including a $100 billion fund to support job training and infrastructure projects that would create new jobs and strengthen the economy.
- Protects critical supports for vulnerable families and individuals. Chairman Murray’s budget protects most core safety net programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP/Food Stamps), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and housing assistance for low-income families. Women especially rely on these programs because they face a greater risk of poverty than men at all stages of their lives.
- Fully implements the Affordable Care Act, ensuring that women will have greater access to affordable health insurance and preventive care services.
- Improves tax credits for working families. The budget would make permanent improvements to the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit that help lift millions of women and children out of poverty each year. These tax credit improvements were extended for only five years by the “fiscal cliff” deal at the end of 2012, unlike many of the Bush-era tax cuts that were made permanent.
- Protects Social Security and promotes a secure retirement. The Murray budget would make no cuts to Social Security benefits, which is particularly important for women who are the majority of adult beneficiaries and rely on Social Security benefits for a greater share of their income than men do. The budget also provides incentives for companies to fully fund their pension plans and proposes other pension system reforms to help more Americans achieve a secure retirement.
- Closes corporate tax loopholes and limits tax breaks for the wealthiest. The Murray budget would make the tax code fairer and raise $975 billion in revenue from the individuals and corporations with the greatest ability to contribute. For example, it calls for limiting tax breaks claimed by the top two percent of income earners, taxing private investment fund managers’ compensation at the same rates as regular earnings, and preventing corporations from taking advantage of offshore tax havens.
- Replaces arbitrary cuts from “sequestration” with a mix of revenue increases and other spending cuts. Chairman Murray’s budget eliminates the automatic, across-the-board cuts (known as “sequestration” or “the sequester”) entirely – including restoration of FY 2013 funds. These cuts, established by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA), took effect March 1, 2013 and are projected to result in the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs and critical services for millions this year alone. Under current law, sequestration will be in effect through FY 2021. The Murray budget replaces the entire sequester with a 50-50 mix of revenue increases and spending cuts.
The total spending cuts in Chairman Murray’s budget are about equal to the revenue increases – $975 billion. This total includes $382 billion cut from the discretionary side of the budget ($240 billion from defense, $142 billion from non-defense), $351 billion from the mandatory side (primarily from $275 billion in cuts to health programs), and $240 billion from interest savings.
This approach is far more fair than the Ryan budget, which not only refuses to ask millionaires and corporations to contribute a penny more toward deficit reduction but would give them huge new tax cuts. Nevertheless, some of the cuts in the Murray budget could be problematic. Specifically, the Murray budget:
- Cuts $275 billion from federal health programs, including Medicare and Medicaid. It will be very important to ensure that these cuts are implemented in a way that does not hurt beneficiaries.
- Maintains and extends low caps on discretionary spending established by the Budget Control Act. Over the next decade, these caps will bring federal spending on non-defense discretionary programs – like Head Start, child care, K-12 education, domestic violence prevention, and job training – to its lowest level in over 50 years. The Murray budget keeps these caps in place through FY 2021 per the BCA, and caps discretionary spending in fiscal years 2022 and 2023 as well, cutting $142 billion from non-defense discretionary spending. These extremely low limits could compel reductions in services that women and their families depend on.
