Sen. Bernie Sanders and other liberal senators have seized on the proposed cuts, in part because Republicans plan to use the budget document to lower corporate tax rates. | Jeff Chiu/AP Democrats: Senate budget cuts nearly $500B from Medicare

Senate Republicans are proposing to slash Medicare spending by $473 billion over a decade, once again diverging from one of President Donald Trump’s key campaign promises, according to Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee.

The panel’s minority party staff, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders, published the figure in a five-page report, obtained by POLITICO.


Although the cuts would occur under the fiscal 2018 budget resolution Senate Republicans unveiled last week, the details are not outlined in any public documents the GOP has released so far.

The Republican plan would slash $5.071 trillion from domestic programs over a decade , but it provides almost no detail on what accounts would be targeted.

Democrats have warned that the GOP would largely cut from safety net programs, which make up a large share of mandatory spending.

Sanders and other liberal senators have seized on the proposed cuts, in part because Republicans plan to use the budget document to lower corporate tax rates.

Democrats say the GOP’s budget resolution would also include $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, another figure not specifically included in the Republican budget outline.

About $660 billion would come from discretionary programs, while the vast majority would come from mandatory programs, which could include housing aid, Medicaid or food stamps.

Democrats have predicted potential cuts under the Republican proposal by estimating the reductions proportionally. That could mean a $100 billion cut to Pell Grants, $37 billion to Section 8 housing assistance and $37 billion to the National Institutes of Health.

The Senate Budget Committee will begin marking up the budget resolution Wednesday afternoon.

