The BCA was passed in 2011 as part of the tax n spend deal with Obama. I defined that the budget is sequestered at the previous year's level if no budget deal is reached. It sets sequester caps. So he Republican Congress has to break the deal, with Democrat votes, otherwise the law specifies cuts.
No such agreement is yet in place for fiscal 2018, meaning the BCA limitations are scheduled to kick back in. The White House has encouraged lawmakers to pass such an agreement for the upcoming fiscal year, but only so it can increase defense spending. In his budget, Trump proposed increasing defense spending by $54 billion and cutting non-defense spending by the same amount.The administration has endorsed an omnibus appropriations bill recently passed by the House, which the Office of Management and Budget conceded would cause a $72 billion sequestration on the defense side. OMB urged lawmakers to make “the necessary changes to the discretionary caps” so that would not occur. It did not respond to questions about whether it would also support raising non-defense caps to avoid a sequester of those accounts as well. Democrats are reluctant to make any adjustments that don't treat civilian and defense spending equally.
The heart of Republican economic policy is deficit spending until bankruptcy. Now they actually have to vote for that.
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