Last week, House and Senate Republicans unveiled their respective budget resolutions for fiscal year 2016. As a quick glance at the documents shows, what is old is new again for the GOP. Each claims to balance the budget within 10 years. Despite the national debt's share of GDP forecast to remain stable over the next decade, the House Budget Committee plan delivered by Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) claims to slash $5.5 trillion in federal spending during the same time frame, while Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi's proposal cuts $5.1 trillion. Each GOP-controlled chamber promises to repeal Obamacare and yet still offers no alternative to replace it.
But in these Republican budget outlines chocked full of magic asterisks, mystery savings, savage cuts to the social safety net, and a laundry list of policies to be determined later, one favorite conservative gimmick--block grants--may be the cruelest of them all. Gutting Medicaid spending and divvying up what remains among the states won't mean new flexibility to tailor their own programs to "to most efficiently and effectively serve low-income families in their communities." Instead, the states will eliminate health coverage for tens of millions of their residents, including many who had government insurance before the Affordable Care Act was signed into law.

Of course, you'd never know that from the happy talk in the Senate and House budget resolutions.
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