Mediaboss Marketing

There are two central problems facing Senate Republican leaders this week as they try to rush through a health-care bill that's gaining opposition by the day:

1. It's gaining opposition by the day. As of Sunday evening, we count 10 senators who either have strong concerns or who can't support the legislation as is. Republican leaders can afford only two defections of their 52-strong caucus.

2. Not all of their concerns are the same. This bill the one with 10 senators who could vote against it is as close as Senate Republican leaders can get to compromise. Any changes to the bill in one direction, say to lessen the impact of Medicaid cuts, will almost certainly make it unpalatable for the opposite side of Republicans' ideological spectrum, such as conservatives who think there's too much government help in health care as is.

Senate Republicans' attempt to roll back Obamacare is a balance between traditional Republican orthodoxy and a recognition that government will probably have a role insuring people for the foreseeable future. On the first point, the bill cuts taxes for the wealthy to grow the economy to give everyone else more money to buy health insurance, if they want it.

But it also keeps some level of government subsidies for people to buy health care, because Republicans don't want to be the party cast as taking away health care people like.

That kind of compromise is necessary to craft a health-insurance bill that won't crater, say health-care experts. Gary Claxton, an analyst at the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, said health-care policy is like a stool. You can't take away the unpopular parts of it, like the tax penalty for people who don't have health insurance, without destabilizing the popular parts, like people having health insurance.

It's easy to say, 'I want to go down these paths,' " Claxton said, but once you go down them, they're pretty hard to back their way out of.

But compromise isn't something Republican senators, both moderates and conservatives, feel like they can sell. Here's what compromise means for Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.), Ted Cruz (Tex.), Mike Lee (Utah) and Ron Johnson (Wis.), who came out against the bill hours after it was introduced: Get rid of most of Obamacare instead of all of it.

Ive been telling leadership for months now Ill vote for a repeal, Paul said Sunday on ABCs This Week. And it doesnt have to be a 100 percent repeal. (The Senate's bill keeps much of Obamacare's structure intact.)

Meanwhile, moderates such as Sens. Dean Heller and Susan Collins feel like they can't go home to people in their states and say: Okay, thousands of you especially the older, sicker and poorer and people with substance abuse problems are going to lose health insurance.

I cannot support a piece of legislation that takes away insurance from tens of millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Nevadans, Heller said in a news conference Friday.

Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) announced on June 23 that he would not support the Republican Senate health-care bill. (Reuters)

Senate Republican leaders have one key leverage point to try to get three of these five likely no votes in line. They can ditch trying to compromise altogether and offer these senators an ultimatum: This is as close as you're going to get to repealing Obamacare. Take it or leave it. And if you leave it, you'll have to explain to your constituents, who have been electing you for years on repealing Obamacare, why Obamacare is still the law of the land.

To that end, a pro-Trump outside group launched a take-no-prisoners ad campaign this weekend accusing Heller of basically standing with Republicans' political enemy, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

And President Trump is tweeting this:

So far, though, neither compromise nor ultimatums seem to be working. Opposition to the bill is going up, not down, the more time Senate Republicans have to think about it. Which means it's a very real possibility that, if a vote is held this week, Senate Republicans' health-care bill fails to pass.

See the original post here:
Yes, there's a real chance Senate Republicans fail to pass a health-care bill - Washington Post

(Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

Senate Republicans are facing down an increasingly daunting challenge to secure the votes necessary to pass legislation to dramatically change President Barack Obamas signature health-care law, and several senators said they would like more time to debate and tweak the plan as GOP leaders push for a vote this week.

At least five Republicans have already come out against their partys bill which can only afford to lose two votes and over the weekend, more began expressing serious reservations and skepticism about the proposal.

The mounting dissatisfaction leaves Senate Republican leaders and the White House in a difficult position. In the coming days, moves to narrow the scope of the overhaul could appeal to moderates but anger conservatives, who believe the legislation does not go far enough to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.

A key moment will arrive early this week when the Congressional Budget Office releases an analysis of the bill that estimates how many people could lose coverage under the Republican plan, as well as what impact it might have on insurance premiums and how much money it could save the government.

The stalled Republican effort to pass a sweeping rewrite of the Affordable Care Act was further threatened Sunday when Republican senators from opposite sides of the partys ideological spectrum voiced their disapproval, imperiling hopes for a Senate vote this week and President Trumps chance to fulfill a core campaign pledge.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Sunday expressed deep concerns about how the bill would cut expanded Medicaid funding for states, a key pillar of the Affordable Care Act that several centrists in the Senate are wary of rolling back, saying on ABCsThis Week that she worries about what it means to our most vulnerable citizens.

Collins also said she is concerned about the bills impact on the cost of insurance premiums and deductibles, especially for older Americans.

Im going to look at the whole bill before making a decision, she said, later adding, Its hard for me to see the bill passing this week.

Underscoring the challenge facing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), speaking on the same Sunday show, also voiced concerns with the bill but for entirely different reasons.

Paul who, along with fellow Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Mike Lee of Utah,has already said he cannot support the current bill rejected the Republican plan as not fiscally austere enough but said that in the face of an impasse, he could support legislation that simply repeals Obamas health-care law.

Ive been telling leadership for months now Ill vote for a repeal, Paul said. And it doesnt have to be a 100 percent repeal. So, for example, Im for 100 percent repeal, thats what I want. But if you give me 90 percent repeal, Id probably vote for it. I might vote for 80 percent repeal.

But simply repealing Obamacare or large parts of the law without making any other changes to the nations health-care system is not a realistic political possibility at the moment.

McConnell and his team remain convinced they must call a vote soon to avoid having health-care discussions dominate the summer, when they aim to move on to retooling tax legislation. In their circle, further talks are also seen as an opening for others to bolt.

Its not going to get any easier, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.) told reporters on the sidelines of a three-day seminar organized by billionaire industrialist Charles Koch in Colorado Springs. And, yes, I think August is the drop deadline, about August 1.

As senators took to the airwaves Sunday, there were developments behind the scenes as GOP leaders made calls and worked to cobble together votes. But no firm decisions on vote-winning revisions were made.

There was new talk among key GOP figures about wooing moderates by altering the bills Medicaid changes, according to two people involved who would not speak publicly. By tweaking how federal funding is determined for Medicaid recipients and linking aspects to the medical component of the consumer price index, there is a belief that some moderates could be swayed, because they want assurances that funding would keep up with any rises in the cost of care, the people said.

Then would come the tightrope: If some senators can be persuaded to support revisions to the Medicaid portion of the bill, several conservatives are warning that unless their amendments are also included, they are unlikely to support the legislation. The hope is that a combination of those Medicaid changes and amendments from conservatives could pave the way to passage.

Progress in these conversations could postpone a vote for a couple weeks until after the Fourth of July holiday, the people said, but Senate leadership and the White House want to move this week if they can.

The administration itself, meanwhile, is sending mixed signals. An allied leadership PAC is launching an intensive advertising campaign against centrist Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), a no vote, to pressure him to support the bill. On This Week, Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, said Trumpis working the phones, hes having personal meetings, and hes engaging with leaders.

Still, the presidents own support for the legislation has at times been lukewarm. Over the weekend, he acknowledged he once called the initial Republican bill, which originated in the House, mean in a private meeting, but also urged senators on Twitter to pass it.

Trumps aides have seemed to signal that the White House is more likely to support the final Senate proposal over the original House bill going forward, and speaking this weekend onFox & Friends, Trump said,I want to see a bill with heart.

Conway added thatthe president and the White House are also open to getting Democratic votes, and asked, Why cant we get a single Democrat to come to the table, to come to the White House, to speak to the president or anyone else about trying to improve a system that has not worked for everyone?

But Democratic support seems unlikely. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), speaking onThis Week, said Democrats would only sit down with Republicans if they stop trying to repeal Obamacare. In an interview with The Washington Post, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) spoke of trying to postpone a vote on the bill to mount a stronger fight against it.

One of the strategies is to just keep offering amendments, to delay this thing and delay this thing at least until after the July Fourth break, Sanders said. That would give us the opportunity to rally the American people in opposition to it. I think we should use every tactic that we can to delay this thing. In fact despite Trumps campaign promise he would not cut Medicaid the Senate bill includes deep cuts to projected spending on the program, deeper even than the House bill over the long run, and is expected to leave millions without or unable to afford health insurance.

On Sunday, there were attempts to tamp down criticism of the effect the Senate bill would have on Medicaid. Speaking on CBSs Face the Nation, Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), claimed the Republican plan will codify and make permanent the Medicaid expansion, and added, No one loses coverage. His comments echoed those by Conway, who told This Week, These are not cuts to Medicaid.

The legislation does not outright abolish the expansion of the program, under which 11million Americans in 31states have gained coverage since 2014. Instead, the bill would gradually eliminate the generous federal funding that has propped up the expansion, leaving states without enough money to pay for all their current beneficiaries.

Johnson, the senator from Wisconsin who surprised some fellow Republicans by co-signing a letter asking for more changes to the bill, said on NBCs Meet the Press that there was no hurry to vote before the end of June.

Theres no way we should be voting on this next week. No way, Johnson said. I have a hard time believing Wisconsin constituents or even myself will have enough time to properly evaluate this, for me to vote for a motion to proceed.

At the same time, Johnson said he was not a pure no on the bill.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who criticized the secretive process by which the new bill was crafted and had preferred his own compromise to extend most of the Affordable Care Act, struck a similar tone on Face the Nation. After saying he was undecided, he clarified that small changes could win his vote.

There are things in this bill that adversely affect my state that are peculiar to my state, Cassidy said. If those can be addressed, I will. If they cant be addressed, I wont. So right now, I am undecided.

Progressive activists spent the weekend warning that Republicans such as Johnson and Cassidy could vote for the bill with minor tweaks. In Columbus, Ohio, at the second of three rallies Sanders and MoveOn.org organized to pressure swing-state Republican senators, MoveOns Washington director, Ben Wikler, warned a crowd of at least 1,000 activists that the protests of Senate Republicans might amount to nothing more than theatrical posturing.

This is the week when Mitch McConnell and Republicans are going to introduce these tiny amendments and Republicans are going to say, Oh, the bill is fixed! Oh, I can vote for it now! Wikler warned. Are we going to let him get away with that?

And looming over the discussions is another challenge: the Republican-controlled House, where any revised Senate bill would head and its ultimate fate would be decided. According to a White House official, Trump advisers are keeping in close touch with the conservative House Freedom Caucus which helped tank the White Houses initial health-care push as the Senate considers the bill, making sure that whatever ends up passing could pass muster with House conservatives.

David Weigel reported from Columbus, Ohio. James Hohmann in Colorado Springs contributed to this report.

See more here:
Senate Republicans face key week as more lawmakers waver in support for health-care bill - Washington Post

The Republican game plan for summer is on course, despite the fury about Russiagate, staffing in the Executive Branch, exciting results of the four special elections for the House, and the unbreathable Washington climate of distrust, disorder, and dishonor.

While the Democrats storm about the presidents temperament and tweets, and especially as Obama administration veterans tell tales about how they scolded the Kremlin for meddling in the election, the winners from Nov. 8, 2016, are beavering away with their majority position and their candid mandate on the economy.

After so many sparkling distractions by Russiagates venerated special counsel, Robert Mueller, it is useful to restate the simple, unwavering, conservative Republican ambition.

The first step is to transform into law of the land the American Health Care Act that was passed by the Republican House on May 4.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has now delivered a Senate version of the AHCA that can attract 50 Republican votes to leave Vice President Mike Pence to break the tie.

The AHCA then goes to reconciliation to solve the differences between the House version, which favors the repeal side of the GOP-despised Affordable Care Act, and the Senate version, which leans toward the replace side of the ACA.

The second step of the GOP plan begins in the reconciliation, and it includes components of the Trump administrations tax-reform proposal.

There is an opinion under discussion at the White House that, since the AHCA is a fiscal bill, there is no restriction to attaching another fiscal bill to the reconciliation. The Republican plan includes a possibility of attaching elements of President Trumps business-tax reform.

Larry Kudlow of CNBC reports that the Republican leadership, including Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows of North Carolina, are in discussion about attaching to the AHCA bill what Kudlow and his colleague Steve Moore of Heritage have dubbed Three Easy Pieces of business-tax reform.

First, cut the corporate tax rate for large and small, Kudlow explained last week, including pass-throughs, from 35 to 15 [percent]. Would have an electric effect on investment. Thats large and small. Seventy percent of the benefits go to the wage earners. Middle-class tax cut.

Second, all new investment would be expensed immediately. Right off. Tremendous.

And finally, repatriate whatever. Three trillion dollars overseas. American companies bring their cash home. A one-time toll of 10 percent, and thats all.

Get The Beast In Your Inbox!

Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast.

A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't).

Subscribe

Thank You!

You are now subscribed to the Daily Digest and Cheat Sheet. We will not share your email with anyone for any reason.

The Republican opinion is that these two bold fiscal steps, health care and tax reform, will satisfy the critical campaign promises of 2016 and will make 2018 a strong showing to return Republican majorities to the Hill.

What can go wrong? The challenge to the GOP plan is the legislative calendar. There are less than two dozen days for the Republicans to hash out the AHCA reconciliation before the August recess. Returning after Labor Day, there are only 64 days left in the year to do the heavy lifting of a proposed Omnibus bill for all of tax reform, business and personal, in addition to renewing the debt limit and passing a budget.

The solution to such a small window for the Republicans is to forgo the August recess in order to solve reconciliation and attach to it the Three Easy Pieces. Meadows is a strong advocate of staying in Washington and gaining the much-needed days for debate on health care.

The entire Republican Party favors the business-tax cuts large and small, Kudlow told me. The whole party. In fact a lot of Democrats favor it. Health care was a big disagreement among Republicans. There will be no big disagreement on the tax cuts.

It is a simple path to success. A small caveat is that the Democrats will object to the AHCA, because of the Congressional Budget Office scoring that could render it a budget-buster.

However, there is a solution under discussion between the Hill and the White House.

Legally, technically, Kudlow explained of the planning in GOP leadership, you can attach the tax-cut bill to the health-care bill. Theyre both fiscal bills, OK, thats the key point. You do not have to use the CBO estimates for the economy You dont have to use the 10-year scorecard window. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania is proposing 20 years. That will take care of all the revenue needs. All of them.

The plan is now entirely in the hands of Republicans, who have the votes, the resolve and the skill to succeed without need of any Democratic opinions or votes.

The Democratic leadership is completely informed of the Republican game plan.

After last Tuesdays efficient Republican victories in Georgia and South Carolina, disgruntled Democratic members of Congress have spoken out against leaders such as Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi for devoting so much energy and time to disdaining Trump instead of developing an answer to the GOP fiscal dyad of health care and taxes.

Joe Rago of The Wall Street Journal editorial board told me two weeks back that the GOP Senate was enjoying the calm of constructing its version of AHCA while the Democrats and the major media were frantic on the front pages about Trump and Putin.

The latest anxious Democratic voice is Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who can see the game getting away from him as surely as he can read the melodramatic headlines about Russiagates hypothetical colluding, blackmailing, hacking, obstructing, interfering, meddling.

Democrats need a strong, bold, sharp-edged, and commonsense economic agenda, Schumer declared on TV, adding Its what we are missing, and its not going to be baby stepsits going to be bold.

The irony is that Schumer is describing exactly the GOP plan to win by Labor Day.

Just in case Schumers frustration with the Democratic obsession with Trump was not obvious, the New York senator added, When you lose an election, you dont blame other people. You blame yourself.

Go here to read the rest:
The Republican Turnaround Starts This Week With Health Care and Tax Reform - Daily Beast

Bernie Sanders at a rally on Saturday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Photograph: Jason Merritt/Getty Images for MoveOn.org

As Donald Trump celebrated the marriage of Wall Street executive-turned-treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin in the Washington swamp he repeatedly pledged to drain, Bernie Sanders stepped onstage in Pittsburgh.

In a city the president last month said he was elected to represent rather than Paris, home of the global climate accord from which Trump has withdrawn, the Vermont senator denounced a moral outrage that this country will never live down.

In Washington, Senate Republican leaders pushed for a vote to dramatically reshape the US healthcare system, ignoring pleas from within their own party to allow more time for debate. In the Rust Belt, Sanders spent the weekend rallying opposition to their plan.

In Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, Sanders was unsparing in his attack on the Republican healthcare bill, which would likely leaves millions of people without insurance cover.

The so-called healthcare bill passed in the House last month is the most anti-working class legislation in the modern history of our country, he said in Pittsburgh, at the first of three rallies organized with the progressive group MoveOn.org, aiming to mobilize opposition ahead of an expected Senate vote this week.

The Senate plan, which was drafted in secret and released last Thursday, would repeal major pieces of the Affordable Care Act (Aca) and exact deep cuts to Medicaid.

The horrible and unspeakable truth, Sanders said, speaking to a crowd of roughly 1,600, is that if this legislation was to pass, and if millions of people, many of whom are terribly ill today, would to lose their healthcare that they have, there is no question but that many many thousands of our fellow Americans will die unnecessarily.

Unacceptable! a man called out.

Others shouted: I will die!

In Columbus, Ohio, Sanders told the crowd he been criticized for portraying the healthcare bill as a matter of life and death. But it was common sense, he said, to say that if you take away healthcare coverage, people will die by the thousands.

I say this with pain, with anxiety, he added. Thousands.

For many attendees, this was personal. Diana Zoelle, a retired political science professor, feared cuts to Medicaid would leave her 89-year-old mother unable to afford nursing home care. Her mother had spent nearly all of her retirement savings, she said, and had been told she was eligible for Medicaid, which covers the longer-term care needs of nearly two-thirds of nursing home residents.

But then Trump says hes taking $880bn out of Medicaid, Zoelle said. I guess he assumes that I will take my mother home with me from the nursing home and that I will pay for everything she needs and then I wont have anything for my old age.

One of the women Zoelle came with shook her head. If the healthcare bill goes through, she said, thats when the real revolt is going to start because its going to affect them and they will act.

Theres not a whole lot of familiarity with the bill. Thats what McConnell wants he wants to move it quickly

Republicans are facing an increasingly difficult challenge to find the votes to pass their healthcare overhaul this week. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is expected to release an analysis of the bill as early as Monday; Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell will spend the week cajoling reticent members of his party.

Theres not a whole lot of familiarity with the bill, Sanders told the Guardian in an interview conducted in Ginos Pizza at Yeager Airport in Charleston, West Virginia. Thats what McConnell wants he wants to move it quickly without a lot of discussion because its such a bad bill.

McConnell has said he wants a vote by the end of the week, before lawmakers leave for a week-long holiday. Over the weekend, some Republican senators cast doubt on that timeline.

Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, who has announced his opposition to the bill from the right, said on NBCs Meet the Press: Theres no way we should be voting. Susan Collins of Maine, a moderate who has serious concerns, said on ABCs This Week: Its hard for me to see the bill passing this week.

Sanders said a delay would be a victory for Democrats and opponents of the effort to scrap the ACA that has only become more unpopular with scrutiny.

If we can beat back on votes this week, he said, it gives us the opportunity to better communicate to the American people how disastrous this legislation is.

At least five Republicans have announced their opposition three more than party leaders can afford to lose. Democrats do not have the votes to stop the bill but remain staunchly opposed.

If [Ohio] Senator [Rob] Portman votes no, the likelihood is this bill would go down, Sanders said at the rally in Columbus. In Charleston, West Virginia, he said the same of Senator Shelley Moore Capito. Neither has yet made a decision, unlike Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania who is likely to vote yes.

At the rallies, Ben Wikler, MoveOns Washington director, warned that Republican opposition could melt away as McConnell negotiates. He urged attendees to continue pressuring senators in their states.

This is not a drill, he said at that rally. This bill is on a knifes edge. This is a code red. We are here to show the entire country the energy, the passion it will take to stop this bill.

Trump, who celebrated with a Rose Garden ceremony when the House healthcare bill passed last month, has failed to make a winning case for the legislation. In an interview with Fox & Friends that aired on Sunday, he accused Barack Obama of copying his characterization of the House bill when the former president described the fundamental meanness of the Senate plan.

He actually used my term: mean. That was my term, Trump said. Because I want to see and I speak from the heart thats what I want to see, I want to see a bill with heart.

Earlier on Sunday, while administration officials defended the healthcare bill on the morning talk shows, Trump chose to revisit the 2016 Democratic primary, tweeting that Hillary Clinton colluded with the Democratic National Committee to beat Crazy Bernie Sanders.

One might think that the president of the United States would have more to worry about than an election that ended for me a year ago, Sanders told the Guardian. I can think of one or two issues that might be of greater importance than worrying about a Hillary Clinton v Bernie Sanders primary. But what do I know?

Sanders supporters from that primary remain, however, and many of them are young. Nearly 5,000 turned out for the three weekend rallies, which were organized with only a few days notice.

One might think that the president would have more to worry about than an election that ended for me a year ago

At an Outback Steakhouse in St Clairsville, Ohio, on Saturday night, servers fought over who would get to seat the senator. In the course of dinner, several diners interrupted to ask for a photo. One squeezed next to Sanders in the booth with her daughter. Im in my gym clothes! she exclaimed, embarrassed.

Another waitress, giddy with excitement, told Sanders: I love you so much Can I give you a hug? Sanders acquiesced to every request and occasionally even pre-empted them.

At the Charleston airport, a flight attendant rushed up to greet him. Do you want a picture? Sanders asked. She did. Look at that, he said dryly. I can read minds.

As a healthcare vote looms in the Senate this week, Sanders and his supporters are looking forward to the next step of the fight moving for a universal single-payer system. Sanders is expected to introduce Medicare for all legislation soon and he expects to have several co-sponsors. He had none when he introduced a version in 2011.

Sanders is realistic about the bills chances.

Youre not going to pass that in a Republican-controlled Congress when Trump is president, he said. The goal is to develop the momentum to at one point as soon as possible pass something like Medicare for all.

At the moment, Sanders said his priority is to defeat the Republican repeal effort.

If it passes the Senate, people should know that the fight is not over, Sanders said.

Unless the House accepts the Senates version of the bill, the legislation will be sent to a conference committee where members of both chambers will work to iron out the differences. This process would give liberal organizers and opponents of the bill another chance to pressure Republicans to abandon the effort.

The struggle continues, Sanders said. Our job is to educate, organize and to make sure that Republicans understand the American people are very strongly opposed to this legislation.

Original post:
Bernie Sanders rallies opposition to Republican healthcare reform plan - The Guardian

An influential House committee chairman will press his case on Monday for a $705 billion defense budget in 2018, more military spending than at any point during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a level even a number of his Republican colleagues don't support.

Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas, who heads the Armed Services Committee, argues the sharp increase is badly needed to repair a military that's been at almost continuous combat for a decade and a half. He'll unveil a blueprint that proposes $37 billion above the $603 billion than President Donald Trump requested for core Pentagon operations along with another $65 billion for warfighting missions.

But Thornberry is at odds with fellow Republicans over how much the Pentagon should get in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. Conservatives who dominate the Budget Committee agreed last week on a budget outline that promises $620 billion for the core military budget that pays for weapons, training and troop salaries. That's $20 billion less than Thornberry wants.

The two committees, along with senior GOP members of the appropriations panel, have been meeting behind closed doors in hopes of breaking the impasse. Thornberry said he's willing to accept a lower number, but only if he's assured the Pentagon will no longer be hamstrung by a herky-jerky budgeting process that leaves the armed services unsure of how much they'll get each year and when the money will arrive.

Squarely in the sights of Thornberry and other defense hawks on Capitol Hill is a 2011 law that strictly limits defense spending. If the budget caps mandated by the Budget Control Act are breached, automatic spending reductions known as sequestration are triggered. They've been pushing for the law to be repealed, but that won't happen without help from Democrats who want limits on domestic spending erased.

"If we can get to a point where we don't have these draconian cuts hanging over our head there is value to that," says Thornberry, whose committee will craft the sweeping defense authorization bill this week.

Thornberry criticized Trump's maiden Pentagon's budget as inadequate, but he refused to blame the president for the shortcomings. The defense budget sent to Congress last month was essentially what former President Barack Obama would have proposed, he said.

"There wasn't anybody at DOD to write a Trump budget request," according to Thornberry. "I have no doubt that our president wants to repair and rebuild our military."

Yet the Trump administration is almost entirely responsible for the skeleton crew at the Pentagon. There are dozens of top-level jobs that require Senate confirmation before they can be filled, but Trump, in office since late January, has nominated just 20 so far. Six have been confirmed, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, while a dozen or so others await approval, according to figures maintained by the Senate.

Thornberry's blueprint recommends an increase of just over 18,000 active-duty troops for the Army, Air Force and Navy. The Army, with 10,000 new service members, would be the largest beneficiary of the boost. Overall, the plan envisions a full-time fighting force of 1.3 million.

The plan provides a 2.4 percent pay raise for the troops, which is slightly higher than the wage hike the Pentagon had proposed. Mattis defended the lower amount during a committee hearing earlier this month, telling lawmakers that the salaries of U.S. service members are competitive with the private sector.

"We probably have a better benefits package than most places," Mattis added.

But Thornberry told reporters last week that U.S. troops are entitled to a "full" pay increase. He also had grappled with the Obama White House over pay levels. The Obama administration had maintained that boosting troop salaries even a half-percentage point would cost hundreds of millions of dollars and upset the balance between fair pay and the ability to provide cutting-edge equipment and training.

The plan aims to reverse the $340 million cut made in the Trump budget to missile defense programs. Thornberry said he was "astonished" by the proposed reduction, citing the potential threat the U.S. faces of a missile strike by North Korea or Iran. He's seeking more money for interceptors that can bring down incoming missiles and money for investment in missile defense research.

Thornberry's committee rejects Mattis' bid to begin a new round of base closings in 2021, a move the Pentagon chief said would save $10 billion over five years. The Obama administration had sought to shutter excess bases too, but also was rebuffed by Capitol Hill. Military installations are prized possessions in congressional districts.

Lawmakers have questioned the data and the analysis the Pentagon has used to make its arguments for fewer facilities. They're also skeptical of the alleged savings, noting that there are substantial up-front costs required to close bases down.

Contact Richard Lardner on Twitter: http://twitter.com/rplardner

Read the rest here:
Top Republican to press for $705 billion defense budget - ABC News