Military Spending

And there are congressional efforts to extend other tax breaks without offsets, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. Republicans also have proposed increasing military spending beyond the caps agreed to in 2011, through a separate budget line called overseas contingency operations.

Senator Cory Gardner, a Colorado Republican who opposed the Medicare payment bill, said he wasn’t surprised that conservatives went along without much of a fuss, saying their desire to get something done won out.

“I think people recognized the significance of the entitlement reform that took place in the bill and recognized the need for a well-thought, long-term solution instead of a year-by-year, kick-the-can-down-the-road approach,” Gardner said in an interview at the Capitol.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California complained at a news conference Thursday that in the first 100 days of this session, Republicans have considered or approved tax bills that give breaks to the “super wealthy and special interests up to about $600 billion.”

Deficit Increasing

“This isn’t job creating. This is deficit increasing,” she said.

The Senate and House are negotiating a unified Republican budget plan for fiscal 2016. Both chambers’ versions aim to trim more than $5 trillion over 10 years and balance the federal budget by 2025 without raising taxes, largely through deep cuts to social safety net programs.

Republicans also are gearing up for a fight later this year in which they’re likely to demand more spending cuts in return for raising the nation’s ability to borrow more money.

Some of the budget moves are being made through more spending, and some through reduced revenue in the form of tax cuts to favored constituencies.

For instance, only 2 of every 1,000 people pay the federal estate tax, says the Tax Policy Center. Obama has said he’d veto it -- and it may not have enough votes in the Senate. Yet Republican backers say it would spur the economy and lift burdens on owners of small businesses and farms.