Josh Barro, Columnist

Did Republicans Create a Budget Monster?

January 23, 2013 at 6:12 PM UTC

Josh Barro is the lead writer for the Ticker, Bloomberg View's blog on economics, finance and politics. His primary areas of interest include tax and fiscal policy, state and local government, and planning and land use. Previously, Barro was a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and a commercial real estate banker at Wells Fargo. He holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from Harvard and lives in Queens, New York.

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After much bluster about the debt limit, Republicans are offering an extension until May at a small price: Both houses must pass a budget resolution, which the Democratic-controlled Senate has not done for several years. Republicans are excited to force Senate Democrats on the record with a budget plan that will surely show years of red ink to come. But before they celebrate, they should think for a second about how politically ugly this year’s House budget is sure to be.

That’s because House Speaker John Boehner has pledged that the budget that passes the House will balance the federal budget over 10 years. Last year’s House budget called for a budget deficit of 1.2 percent of gross domestic product in 2022. So, this year’s House budget will have to have substantial additional revenues and/or spending cuts compared to last year’s.