Armed with leverage over the future of President Donald Trump’s policy agenda and little faith in Congress, Republican fiscal hawks are holding the White House’s feet to the fire to force deep federal budget cuts.
The White House and congressional leaders have dangled an array of cost-cutting options to weary Republican holdouts concerned about the national debt, from rescission legislation for codifying Department of Government Efficiency cuts to congressional appropriations to a Congress-White House review panel to make line-by-line reductions.
With the House lining up with the Senate on Thursday on a GOP budget blueprint to ultimately unlock Trump’s tax, border, and energy priorities, those Republicans who were promised steep spending reductions will soon come to collect.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) promised $1.5 trillion in cuts over a decade, enough to flip Republican holdouts on passing a so-called budget resolution to begin a process known as reconciliation. However, deficit hawks said the figure was far from adequate to earn their support later this year on final reconciliation legislation, as they eye upward of $500 billion in annual spending reductions.
“These budget resolutions are woefully inadequate,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), a leading budget wonk demanding a return to lower prepandemic spending levels, told the Washington Examiner. “They can pat themselves on the back for passing it. Great, but if that’s all we achieve, from my standpoint, I’m not voting for it.”
The Wisconsin senator is among a small group of Republicans lobbying Trump to create a budget review panel comprised of White House officials and lawmakers to scrutinize thousands of line items, similar to the process governors undertake for state budgets.
The mechanism for more aggressively slashing spending may seem trivial to other Republicans prodding to accomplish Trump’s legislative agenda that will only require a simple majority in both chambers of Congress, which are narrowly controlled by the GOP. However, failure to satisfy those most concerned about a mounting debt crisis could mean Republican dreams of passing Trump priorities, such as extending 2017-era tax cuts, will come crashing down.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), another leading advocate of the budget review panel, suggested that White House officials had committed to the panel’s creation, which he cited as a red line for supporting reconciliation legislation. However, he declined to name who in the White House offered assurances. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
“[Otherwise], we’re not going to be serious about cutting spending, and I’m not going to support something if we don’t cut spending,” Scott told the Washington Examiner.
Ron Johnson appeared less sure of the panel’s future but is planning to meet again with Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought about the matter in the wake of the House passing the GOP budget resolution. Republican deficit hawks have an ally in Vought, whose brass-knuckled approach to politics has closely aligned him with the House Freedom Caucus.
Congressional Republicans continue to await rescissions legislation from the White House to codify into law the slashes in spending that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has undertaken. The savings are anticipated to be somewhere in the billions of dollars, far below Musk’s inflated projections of hundreds of billions.
However, the divide among Republicans on either side of the Capitol has complicated the GOP’s path forward.
Republican senators have shown far more flexibility in Trump driving the process of spending cuts, while those in the House have sought more concrete outlines put on paper. Evidence of that was laid out in the budget resolution passed by both chambers, which directs the House to find $1.5 trillion in cuts but just $4 billion for the Senate.
Republicans will also face the daunting task of finding enough so-called waste, fraud, and abuse to trim down without dipping into popular but expensive programs, such as Medicaid, that are untenable for many GOP lawmakers.
Meanwhile, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) envisioned budget cuts originating in the committees of jurisdiction.
“To those who want to cut spending, the only problem you’ll have is being unable to convince 49 of your colleagues of what you want to cut. I don’t want to hear any more about spending cuts,” Graham said after a recent meeting at the White House. “Those who want to cut spending, there will be a process where you can make your case before the authorizing committee and say, ‘This item should be cut, and here’s why.’ And if you fail, you fail.”
TRUMP’S BUDGET CHIEF SHOWS ‘TOTAL’ COMMITMENT TO SHRINKING GOVERNMENT
Ron Johnson suggested that process was “not going to cut it” but offered some wiggle room as long as there was “at least a very concerted effort” to significantly pare back spending.
“It’s not like this should surprise anybody. I’ve been upfront about this since the first of the year,” he said.
David Sivak contributed to this report.
