WASHINGTON — Normally quarrelsome House Republicans came together Wednesday night and passed a conservative budget that relies on nearly $5 trillion in cuts to eliminate deficits over the next decade, calls for repealing the health care law and envisions transformations of the tax code and Medicare.
Final passage, 228-199, came after Republicans bumped up recommended defense spending to levels proposed by President Barack Obama. The Colorado delegation voted along party lines except for Republican Rep. Ken Buck, who voted no.
Much of the budget’s savings would come from Medicaid, food stamps and welfare, programs that aid the low-income, although details were sketchy.
Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., chairman of the House Budget Committee, called the plan a “balanced budget for a stronger America” — and one that would “get this economy rolling again.”
Democrats rebutted that the GOP numbers didn’t add up and called their policies wrong-headed.
The Republican-controlled Senate is likely to approve its version of a budget by week’s end.
