RIGHT SPEAK: Senate Budget Plan Seeks To Balance Budget in 10 Years ... Less Detail than House GOP Plan

Senate Republicans unveiled a 2016 budget blueprint on Wednesday that will match the House GOP’s ambition to eliminate the annual federal deficit over a decade, but provided fewer details on how safety-net programs would be changed to provide the savings.

It also highlighted a rift between Republicans over how to satisfy defense hawks that want to boost military spending, a division that could confront lawmakers when budgets come up for votes.

A budget proposal that is lighter on politically-sensitive policy directives is a reflection of the enduring institutional differences separating the two GOP-led chambers. Senate Republicans generally represent a broader ideological cross-section of voters than their House counterparts, who on Tuesday laid out more detailed plans for overhauling Medicare and other entitlement programs.

The Senate Republican budget would reduce spending by $5.1 trillion over 10 years, slightly less than the House’s proposal for $5.5 trillion in reductions over that period. Both chambers rely on repealing the Affordable Care Act, shifting more responsibility to the states for Medicaid and food stamps, and making changes to Medicare for the bulk of their savings.

But Senate Republicans, who until this year had been sidelined as the chamber’s minority since 2006, are leaving more of the responsibility for finding those savings to newly-empowered heads of committees.