WASHINGTON — Republicans in Congress advanced balanced-budget plans brimming with cuts in Medicaid and other benefit programs Thursday, determined to make a down payment on last fall’s campaign promise to erase deficits by the end of the decade.
Last-minute maneuvering to match Pentagon spending levels requested by President Obama consumed GOP lawmakers on the House Budget Committee and its Senate counterpart.
Yet the GOP’s focus also extended to deficit reduction, repeal of the health care law, an overhaul of the tax code, and other budget priorities long advocated by conservatives in control of both houses of Congress for the first time in nearly a decade.
‘‘By demanding Washington live within its means, we are forcing government to be more efficient, effective, and accountable,’’ Representative Tom Price, Republican of Georgia, said after gaveling the House’s version of the budget through its Budget Committee on a 22-to-13 party-line vote.
Senator Mike Enzi, Republican of Wyoming, nudged the Senate panel to complete its work as well, as critics voiced their dissatisfaction in unsparing terms.
‘‘What they are proposing is to cut programs for some of the most vulnerable people in this country — the elderly, children, sick low-income people’’ said Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who may run for president next year as a Democrat. ‘‘At the same time they want to give significant tax breaks to the wealthy and the large corporations,’’ he said.
Approval of the budgets in both committees would lead to votes next week in the House and Senate.
After that, the next steps would be for Republicans to produce a compromise, then turn that into legislation.
Both the House and Senate budget blueprints called for more than $5 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade, the overwhelming portion of it coming from repeal of the health care law and savings from social programs including Medicaid, welfare, food stamps, and Medicare. Details were sparse or, in some cases, nonexistent.
There were differences in the two plans, to be sure.
For the third year in a row, House Republicans showed an eagerness to convert Medicare into a voucher-like program for individuals who enroll beginning in 2024, a change that would generate significant budget savings only in the longer term. Senate Republicans omitted it.