Budget Bill Excludes "Tax Expenditure" Provisions

The main victims of H. Res. 384 would be graduate students: If H. Res. 384 is passed and implemented as written, graduate and professional students would lose the ability to take out subsidized Stafford loans beginning July 1, 2012.

But H. Res. 384 does not call for any specific changes in tax provisions, and it allocates hundreds of millions of dollars in extra funding to help the Social Security Administration speed up Social Security Disability Insurance reviews and redeterminations for eligibility.

The resolution would provide an immediate $400 billion increase in the debt limit, and then allow the debt to rise an additional $1.7 trillion to $2 trillion.

In exchange, party leaders in the House and Senate would each have to appoint 3 members to a 12-person budget cutting committee would have to produce at least $1.2 trillion in budget cuts by Nov. 23.

If Congress did not meet the $1.2 trillion deficit reduction goals, then the resolution would impose across-the-board reductions, with half affecting “security programs,” such as the U.S. Defense Department, and half affecting other types of programs, such as the U.S. Treasury Department and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Other federal budget coverage from National Underwriter Life & Health:

• Gang of Six: Kill CLASS; Cut Social Security, Health Spending
• Rating Agencies Eye U.S. Government, Japanese Life Insurers
• Moody’s Places U.S. Aaa Government Bond Rating and Related Ratings on Review for Possible Downgrade
• AALU Panelists Not Holding Breath on Budget Reform
• AALU Speaker: Save the Breaks You Have