RSC Back to Basics FY2014 Budget

Back to Basics: A Fiscal Year 2014 Budget

Republican Study Committee Chairman Steve Scalise, RSC Budget and Spending Task Force Chairman Rob Woodall, and the members of the RSC Budget and Spending Task Force have introduced “Back to Basics: A Budget for Fiscal Year 2014.”

The RSC’s FY 2014 budget proposal balances the budget in four years while cutting discretionary spending and adequately funding defense.

Specifically, it…

  • Cuts discretionary spending to $950 billion (just below the 2008 levels approved by Nancy Pelosi), and freezes it until the budget balances in 2017.  Defense spending is set at the same level as the House Budget Committee proposal.  Non-defense shrinks from $398 billion in 2014 to $392 billion in 2023.
  • Adopts the RSC's Jobs Through Growth Act's tax proposal, which gives taxpayers the flexibility of opting into a simpler, flatter, and fairer tax code than what currently exists..
  • Extends federal funding for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) at FY 2014 levels and give states the tools they need to design and improve their own programs.  This proposal is modeled on the RSC’s State Health Flexibility Act.
  • Establishes that work requirements are at the heart of welfare reform, as proposed by the Preserving Work Requirements for Welfare Programs Act of 2013.


The budget also proposes reforms to strengthen Social Security and Medicare in both the near- and long-term.

Specifically, this proposal…

  •  Transitions Medicare to a solvent premium-support system, as proposed by the Republican House Budget.  The RSC budget proposes making this transition in 2019, for workers born in 1954 and later.  This plan provides Medicare enrollees a greater menu of choices including staying with the current system, harnessing the power of competition among private insurance plans and improving the quality of care.
  • Gradually realigns the Social Security full retirement age and the Medicare eligibility age with Americans’ increasing longevity.  The threshold for eligibility would increase to 70 in increments of 2 months per year beginning in 2024.  These reforms would be phased in over decades and neither reform would have any impact on individuals currently 55 or older.
  • Further strengthens Social Security’s long-term finances by transitioning cost of living adjustments (COLAs) to be indexed to chained CPI-U, which more accurately tracks the impact of inflation.
Additional Documents:
The Budget (Updated 3.19), Two-Page Summary, Legislative Text, Press Release