House Speaker John Boehner, right, listens as House Majority Whip Steve Scalise speaks on Capitol Hill on March 24. (AP / Lauren Victoria Burke)

House Republicans on Wednesday night passed a budget that eliminates nearly $5 trillion from social welfare programs over the next decade and envisions regressive tax reforms and calls for the repeal of President Obama’s health care law.

The Guardian reported:

The budget’s final passage, by 228 votes to 199, came shortly after Republicans bumped up recommended defense spending to levels proposed by president Barack Obama.

The plans themselves are non-binding and do not require a presidential signature. Instead, once the House and Senate agree on a common approach, lawmakers will have to draft legislation to carry out the program that Republicans have vowed to follow in the wake of campaign victories last fall that gave them control of both houses of Congress.

Much of the budget’s savings would come from programs that aid low-income demographics, although details were sketchy.

Read more here.

— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.

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