Republicans Can Have Their Tax Cuts and Benefits, Too

Congressional Republicans face some tough math. They want to extend tax cuts, set to expire this year, that would add perhaps $4.5 trillion in new deficit spending. To offset such extravagance, they plan to come up with $2 trillion in spending cuts. Can it be done, as the White House suggests, without touching benefits? Possibly — but not the way lawmakers appear to be going about it.

Last month, House Republicans passed a budget blueprint that constitutes the first step toward a so-called reconciliation bill, which will allow them to extend the expiring provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act with a simple majority. Although the plan directs the committee that oversees government health-insurance programs to find $880 billion in savings, it offers no specific proposals. Plenty of ideas are now circulating, most of which focus on cuts to Medicaid, the federal entitlement for the poor.