WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The 2016 budget deal increases US defense spending and makes significant cuts to the social safety net including Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and other social programs that support the poor and the elderly.
The final vote was 226-197, with fourteen House Republicans joining every House Democrat in opposing the legislation. The Republican budget must still be approved by US President Barack Obama before going into effect.
“We are set to adopt the first balanced budget of this kind in over a decade," House Budget Chairman Tom Price told the press on Thursday.
Price continued that “the American people can't live on borrowed money. The federal government ought not to do so either."
