ICYMI: FIVE-ALARM FIRE: The House Freedom Caucus' Extreme Budget Proposal Is A Disaster for Hardworking Americans

As MAGA House Republicans go to Florida for their retreat, the White House and Congressional Democrats are going on offense, slamming the Freedom Caucus's MAGA Budget Proposal as a Five-Alarm Fire for hardworking families. The Freedom Caucus's MAGA Budget Proposal would endanger public safety, raise costs for families, ship manufacturing jobs overseas, weaken our national security, and hurt our seniors.

That's in stark contrast with the President's Budget, supported by Congressional Democrats, which invests in America, lowers costs for families, protects and strengthens Medicare and Social Security, and reduces the deficit by nearly $3 trillion over 10 years while ensuring that no one making less than $400,000 per year pays a penny more in new taxes.

Each day this week, the White House will zero-in on how the MAGA Budget Proposal would be a disaster for hardworking Americans in a different way—using new analysis by Agencies and OMB that puts numbers to the damage done by MAGA Republican proposals. Today, the White House showcased how the draconian cuts pushed by extreme MAGA Republicans would endanger Americans' safety.

See coverage below:

Axios: White House sounds alarm on Freedom Caucus' budget plan
[Sophia Cai, 3/20/23]

The White House will take a preemptive shot at Republicans on the federal budget this week, rolling out a blistering five-point critique of a plan by the far-right House Freedom Caucus, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: The Biden administration — still waiting for Republicans' official budget plan for fiscal 2024 — is trying to gain a tactical advantage in the upcoming budget talks by casting a proposal by three dozen GOP hardliners as a "five-alarm fire" for Americans.

• The Freedom Caucus' plan calls for across-the-board cuts in U.S. agencies' funding by capping spending at 2022 levels for the next 10 years. It would end Biden's $400 billion student loan forgiveness program, reclaim unspent Covid funds, increase work requirements for welfare recipients, and more.
• House Republicans insist that Biden cut his $6.8 trillion budget or they won't approve raising the debt ceiling — a move that could create an economic calamity.

Driving the news: Each day this week, the White House plans to show how part of the Freedom Caucus plan would hurt Americans —using new analyses by agencies and the OMB:

• Today: Biden administration officials will say that cuts to police funding and train safety would endanger public safety.
• Tuesday: They aim to show how health care and energy cuts required by the Freedom Caucus plan would raise costs for families.
• Wednesday: The White House will emphasize how cuts in incentives for manufacturing investments would undermine U.S. workers by sending manufacturing jobs overseas.
• Thursday: They'll say that cuts to Medicare would be required, hurting seniors.
• Friday: And that defense cuts would be necessary, weakening national security.

Fox News: White House blasts House Freedom Caucus budget plan, claims it would hurt border security and cut CBP staff
[Adam Shaw, 3.20/23]

The White House says a government analysis of a budget proposal laid out this month by a conservative House caucus would make the U.S. southern border less secure by eliminating funding for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) staff and reducing the ability to combat drug trafficking.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, the White House said the proposal by the House Freedom Caucus (HFC) is a "five-alarm fire for hardworking families" that endangers public safety and border security.

[…]

"Their draconian cuts would eliminate funding for more than 2,000 Customs and Border Protection agents and officers and severely undermine our ability to secure the border and combat drug trafficking—allowing an additional 150,000 pounds of cocaine, nearly 900 pounds of fentanyl, nearly 2,000 pounds of heroin, and more than 17,000 pounds of methamphetamine into our country," the official said. 

NBC News: White House to counter GOP's soft-on-crime attacks by targeting far-right budget plan
[Carol E. Lee, 3/20/23]

The official described Monday's focus on crime as the opening salvo in a weeklong "offensive" to highlight different provisions in a budget put forward by the far-right House Freedom Caucus. According to the official, "each day this week, the White House will zero in on how the MAGA budget proposal would be a disaster for hardworking families in a different way."

On Monday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will discuss GOP proposals at the top of her daily press briefing, arguing that the Freedom Caucus budget would cut funding for law enforcement — from local agencies and state grants to the FBI — as well as diminish staffing at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and generally "make communities less safe." Those comments will be amplified by "an aggressive digital push" on the issue, according to the White House official. 

[…]

While House Republicans' official budget has yet to be released, the White House is latching onto the proposal that represents the views of the House GOP's most right-leaning members. The budget proposes, among other provisions, capping discretionary spending at fiscal 2022 levels for a decade.