GOP Squishes Dig Their Heels in against President Trump’s Budget Cuts
President Trump’s team is seeking “dramatic” cuts to government spending. If you voted for the president and for Republicans in Congress with the belief that they would support an agenda to reduce the size of government, you are likely thrilled with this news.
The plan being considered by the newly inaugurated president would reduce federal spending by an estimated $10.5 trillion over the next 10 years.
But it could run into a wall of opposition in the GOP-controlled Congress.
Several Republican senators are voicing opposition to provisions in Trump’s plan that would cut their favorite pet-spending projects.
For example, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah (F, 33%) told The Hill that eliminating the Legal Services Corporation – a move that would save $400 million – would not get through the Senate.
“I think that would be hard thing to do. Even if you wanted to do that, you couldn’t get it through the Senate,” he said.
President Trump’s plan closely resembles proposals from the Heritage Foundation and from the Republican Study Committee. According to The Hill, Senator Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska (F, 20%) will “pull out all the stops” to oppose any cut to the essential air service program, a subsidy for rural airports in areas with low populations that the Heritage Foundation and RSC propose to end.
Senator Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. (F, 15%) unapologetically dismissed cuts to discretionary spending as a means of tackling the debt. “Any effort to balance the budget by cutting discretionary spending is not a straightforward approach,” he said. “The part of the budget that is creating the debt is the entitlement part of the budget.”
While it is true that entitlement programs are the largest drivers of the near-$20 trillion debt, President Trump has previously indicated that he has no interest in touching entitlement spending.
“I’m not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid,” Trump told The Daily Signal in 2015. “Every other Republican is going to cut, and even if they wouldn’t, they don’t know what to do because they don’t know where the money is. I do.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss. (F, 28%) has pledged to fight the elimination of a catfish inspection program the Heritage Foundation argues is redundant and ripe with government waste. The Mississippi Republican, whose home state is the nation’s leading producer of catfish, said ending the program “would be a problem and wouldn’t save any money.”
The long story short is that given the president of the United States opposes reigning in entitlement programs, any cuts to come from this administration must come from discretionary spending. And while Republicans can talk a great game on government spending on the campaign trail, once they’re in office, no one wants to end their personal favorite pork projects.
Members opposing discretionary cuts b/c mandatory spending is "real problem" often don't support reducing either one https://t.co/Nz2lcR0IBG
— James I. Wallner (@jiwallner) January 23, 2017
If President Trump is serious about cutting government spending, he’s going to have to fight for every penny. (For more from the author of “GOP Squishes Dig Their Heels in against President Trump’s Budget Cuts” please click HERE)
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