President Donald Trump has proposed a staggering spending cut.
In the 2026 budget request, the president calls for Congress to cut an eye-opening 20% of the spending that lawmakers allocate annually.
“You’ll see $150 billion (cuts) passed in the house and the Senate. That’s real money,” said Russ Vaught, Budget Director at Fox News. “For the first time, I don’t think this budget would die on arrival.”
To be clear, the budget Trump has sent to Capitol Hill is ambitious. That’s the case with all presidential budgets. That the president proposes that lawmakers and his administration aim to spend next year. Congress is still accused of votes on 12 annual spending bills that fund the government. The 20% cut proposed by President Trump deals with that expenditure sector.
Reporter’s Notebook: Where to Stand with Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”
The new budget defended by Team Trump is marked by dramatic spending cuts. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The Trump administration characterized this blueprint as a “skinny” budget. That’s because it doesn’t contain anything about Medicare and Medicaid. These social programs consume exorbitant chunks of federal spending. This is far beyond what Congress pays each year. Congressional Republicans are aiming to make some change to these programs with what is called “big and beautiful bills.” Republicans argue that these programs cannot withstand cuts. However, “cut” is in the eyes of the viewer.
“We move towards a long-term, balanced budget. I like thinking in the long term, not in the short term,” says R-Fla from Fox News.
To be clear, the GOP’s big and beautiful bill framework does not balance the budget. In fact, it increases the fiscal deficit. Trump’s budget package is also unbalanced. There is no way to understand such a path unless you include Medicare and Medicaid.
But this is what Trump’s budget request is:
Eliminate dollars from all federal departments and agencies, except for the Department of Transport and Veterans Affairs. Space programs and NASA are also safe.
“This is how you can break the swamp,” declared the Freedom Caucus of House. “The budget for fiscal year 2014 is a paradigm shift.”
The president’s proposal cuts the Housing and Urban Development Bureau by 40%. The labor department and internal department will be on the 30% level.
Senate Armed Service Republicans say Trump’s Omboo budget states military capabilities “to smash into the bones”
However, the Pentagon dollars are essentially flat.
The Defensive Hawks were Apoptrick.
Roger Wicker, R-Miss, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. torched Trump’s overview.
“Trump has succeeded in peace through the Agenda of Strength, but his advisor to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) clearly hadn’t heard.” “For the defense budget, the OMB requested Biden administration funds for the fifth consecutive year, leaving military spending flat.
Wicker accused the OMB of “trying to shred the country’s troops to bones.”
R-Miss. Some members of Congress, such as Senator Roger Wicker of denounced Trump’s proposal for effective non-adjusting to its effective defense fund. (Anna Rose Rayden/Getty Images)
Former Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY.) chairs the Senate Defense Budget Panel, which was charged with funding the Pentagon.
“It is singular how much time a presidential advisor spends talking about restoring peace through strength given that he is not intended to invest accordingly in national defense or other important means of national power,” McConnell said.
“I am extremely concerned that the requested basic budget for defense does not reflect a realistic pathway to building the military capabilities needed to achieve President Trump’s peace through the strength agenda,” said Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee of R-ALA.
With such friends…
Trump condemns budget bills against Republican “Grand Standards” and predicts a massive US tax hike if it fails
Vought countered Congressional defense advocates and their claim that budget demands would rob the troops.
“This is an inaccurate fee. We provide $1 trillion on defense spending. A 13% increase. We do that with two components,” Vought said. “We use discretionary spending, and we’ll make all the historic paradigms all the rise in defense and homeland security. We’ll use it in the settlement, as we only need to use Republican votes. We don’t want to reject the Folibuster and then hijack the spending process and say no to the owner of homeland security.
Please fillet that statement for you.
In other words, Vought argues that part of the Pentagon’s funding increases will come through “budget settlements.” Republicans intend to hand over that package only through GOP votes. But if Republicans include that military money in their “regular” spending bill, Democrats may demand “parity.” They will argue that non-defense programs will win the same increase as voting to overcome the progress of these bills and filibusters. So he argues that his approach prevents Democrats from holding Pentagon dollars hostage in exchange for money targeted at other programs.
Management and Budget Director Russ Vert rejected claims that Trump’s budget would deplete the military. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
But Democrats are focusing on what Republicans try to do with Medicare and Medicaid. They claim that Republicans are teeing the cut.
“Hospitals will be closed. Nursing facilities will be closed. The community will be hurt.
Republicans argue that these programs do not face cuts.
“The question is, are we vulnerable to the fear and false rhetoric you just heard from the Democratic minority leaders in the House? And this is the same tired play they run.” “We’re doing this for the most vulnerable people because of the sustainability of these programs, so we’re rewarded.”
Trump says public qualifications like Social Security, Medicaid won’t be able to touch on the GOP budget bill
Still, some people are worried about how GOP handles these programs.
“If you want to be a minority forever, go ahead and cut Medicaid,” said Sen. Josh Hawley of R-Mo. “That would be devastatingly stupid.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. , Jason Smith, Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, R-Mo. and Brett Guthrie, R-KY, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. met President Trump later last week to discuss the big beautiful bill. The White House has given Congressional leaders a wish list of items needed for the bill.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. aims to pass the bill inside the house by anniversary. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc, Getty Images)
There is a tax credit for electric vehicles.
“It’s fine if someone wants to go buy an electric vehicle. I just don’t think hardworking Americans should subsidize it,” House Trustees Chairman Bryan Steil told Fox News.
Republicans want to use the money generated from EV sales to expand the Highway Trust Fund. The government used federal gas tax to pay for the construction of roads and bridges. However, Congress has not adjusted gas tax since the mid-1990s. Plus, more EVs and hybrids are currently on the road. Traditional gas-dependent vehicles are fuel efficient. So this raises some of those depleted financial resources.
House Freedom Caucus accepts Trump’s budget proposal “Paradigm shift”
Johnson is sticking to his goal of having the bill pass through the house by anniversary. But some Republicans doubt that timeline.
“There’s no way,” Fox Business’ R-Wisc. Senator Ron Johnson said. “Unfortunately, President Trump chose the big, beautiful (the bill). All he should have done was a multi-step process.”
In other words, lawmakers could have addressed individual chunks of borders, tax cuts and spending cuts. Loading everything on one legislative truck makes this difficult.
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So can the house approve this in two weeks? There is not much consensus yet. But maybe they’ll try to wear the members.
“We’ll stay until we hand it over,” said a leadership source at GOP’s senior house.
Chad Pergram is currently a senior council correspondent at Fox News Channel (FNC). He joined the network in September 2007 and is based in Washington, DC.
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