Visualizing the new GOP spending plan

Speaking Security Newsletter | Note n°203 | 21 April 2023

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On Wednesday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy unveiled the Limit, Save, Grow Act. Among its most significant cost-cutting measures, it would cap FY2024 federal spending at FY2022 levels.

^Alt text for screen readers: “for fiscal year 2024, for the discretionary category, $1,470,979,000,000 in new budget authority”

Here’s how the enacted FY2022 budget divvied up that $1.47 trillion:

^Alt text for screen readers: Enacted fiscal year 2022 appropriations. This blue donut chart totals $1.47 trillion and is made up of 12 parts (in billions): legislative branch, 5.9; agriculture, 25.1, financial services 25.5, interior/environment, 38; energy/water, 52.9; state/foreign operations, 56.1; homeland security, 57.5; commerce/justice/science, 75.8; transportation/housing/urban development, 81; military construction/veterans affairs, 127.6; labor/health/education, 197; DOD, 728.5.

The FY2024 bill wouldn’t look like that, though. Rep. Tom Cole — Vice Chair of the Appropriations Committee (and Chair of the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development subcommittee) — said that of the 12 annual spending bills, only the ones for the Pentagon, Department of Homeland Security, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs will avoid cuts and proceed with what Biden requested in his FY2024 budget proposal. The chairpersons of those subcommittees will be “popping champagne corks,” Cole said, while “the rest of us will be crying into our beer.” (Cole also sits on the Congressional Bourbon Caucus.)

Those three already consumed most of the discretionary budget in FY2022, but proposed FY2024 funding for DOD and Milcon-VA is way higher than what was enacted then (DHS is ‘only’ a few billion higher). This means that the other nine appropriations measures will have about $140 billion less to work with in FY2024 than they did last year.

For the estimated budget below, I adopted Biden’s proposed funding for DOD, DHS, and Milcon-VA. I projected the funding for the other nine appropriations bills based on their share of last year’s $1.47 trillion discretionary budget — minus FY2022-level DOD, DHS, and Milcon-VA funding — and applied that percentage to a prospective $1.47 trillion budget, minus proposed FY2024 funding for DOD, DHS, and Milcon-VA.

Because those are probably Biden’s three favorite accounts (he’s referred to two of them as sacred), overall I’d say this is a pretty effective way to reduce social spending.

^Alt text for screen readers: Republican budget plan cuts social programs, fattens up on militarized spending. Estimated fiscal year 2024 discretionary appropriations. This red donut chart totals $1.47 trillion and is made up of 12 sections (in billions): legislative branch, 4.38; agriculture, 18.64; financial services, 18.94; interior/environment, 28.22; energy/water, 39.29; state/foreign operations, 41.67; commerce/justice/science, 56.3; transportation/housing/urban development, 60.1; homeland security, 60.4; labor/health/education, 146.32; DOD, 842.

-Stephen (@stephensemler; stephen@securityreform.org)

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