Senate Rejects Spending Cuts Proposed by Trump Administration

By The Blaze. The Senate voted 48-50 to reject a spending cuts bill proposed by the White House. Two Republicans crossed the aisle and voted with Democrats to kill the measure. . .

The Spending Cuts to Expired and Unnecessary Programs Act proposed $15 billion in cuts between 2018 and 2028. The money would be cut from a number of different departments, including Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Health and Human Services, Justice, and Housing and Urban Development.

However, the Washington Post noted that most of the spending would involve funds that the government could not spend anyway, including $7 billion from the Children’s Health Insurance Program that mostly came from an expired and unusable account. When these programs are factored in, the total amount of budget cuts to be spread over the 11-year time period comes to around $1 billion. . .

Senate Democrats did not have the numbers to kill this bill without help from their Republican colleagues. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) voted against the bill, as did Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who typically supports Trump’s policies. . .

The bill, which was requested by the Trump administration, was sponsored by Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and co-sponsored by 16 Republican members of Congress. It narrowly passed the House of Representatives 210-206 on June 7. (Read more from “Senate Rejects Spending Cuts Proposed by Trump Administration” HERE)

________________________________________________

Senate Rejects Billions in Trump Spending Cuts as Two Republicans Vote ‘No’

By The Washington Post. The Senate on Wednesday rejected billions in spending cuts proposed by the Trump administration as two Republicans joined all Democrats in voting no.

The 48-50 vote rebuffed a White House plan to claw back some $15 billion in spending previously approved by Congress — a show of fiscal responsibility that was encouraged by conservative lawmakers outraged over a $1.3 trillion spending bill in March.

The House had approved the so-called rescissions package earlier this month. But passage had never been assured in the Senate, where a number of Republicans had been cool to the idea from the start.

Nevertheless, Wednesday’s outcome was startling because one of the opposing votes came from Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who does not normally buck the White House or GOP leadership. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a moderate and one of the Republicans who most frequently side with Democrats, cast the other GOP vote against the cuts. (Read more from “Senate Rejects Billions in Trump Spending Cuts as Two Republicans Vote ‘No’” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.