Republicans squabble over Trump spending plan as Fiscal Year 2026 looms: 'Stay until we pass it'
President Donald Trump is proposing staggering spending cuts.
In his budget request for fiscal year 2026, the president demands that Congress slash an eye-popping 20% of spending which lawmakers allocate each year.
"You're going to see $150 billion (in cuts) passed in the House and the Senate. That is real money," said Budget Director Russ Vought on Fox News. "I think for the first time, this budget is not dead on arrival."
To be clear, the budget which Mr. Trump sent to Capitol Hill is aspirational. All presidential budgets are. It's what a president proposes that lawmakers – and his administration – aim to spend for the upcoming fiscal year. Congress is still charged with voting on the 12 annual spending bills which fund the government. The 20% cut proposed by President Trump deals with that area of spending.
The Trump administration characterized this blueprint as a "skinny" budget. That's because it included nothing about Medicare and Medicaid. Those social programs consume exorbitant chunks of federal spending – far exceeding what Congress appropriates each year. Congressional Republicans aim to make alterations of some kind to these programs in their so-called "big, beautiful bill." Republicans insist those programs won't endure cuts. But a "cut" is in the eye of the beholder.
"We're going to move towards a long-term balanced budget. I like how we're thinking long-term instead of short-term," said Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., on Fox News.
To be clear, the framework for the GOP's big, beautiful bill does not balance the budget. In fact, it increases the budget deficit. And Mr. Trump's budget package doesn't balance either. There's no way to understand such a path unless you include Medicare and Medicaid.
But here's what Mr. Trump's budget request does do:
It eliminates dollars from every federal department and agency, except the Departments of Transportation and Veterans Affairs. Space programs and NASA are also safe, too.
"This is how you break the Swamp," declared the House Freedom Caucus. "The FY '26 budget is a paradigm shift."
The president's proposal knifes the Department of Housing and Urban Development by 40%. It axes the Departments of Labor and Interior by 30%.
However, dollars for the Pentagon are essentially flat.
Defense hawks were apoplectic.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., torched Mr. Trump's outline.
"Trump successfully campaigned on a Peace Through Strength agenda. But his advisers at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) were apparently not listening," fumed Wicker. "For the defense budget, OMB has requested a fifth year straight of Biden administration funding, leaving military spending flat, which is a cut in real terms."
Wicker accused OMB of trying to "shred to the bone" the nation's military.
Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., chairs the Senate defense appropriations panel, charged with funding the Pentagon.
"It is peculiar how much time the President's advisors spend talking about restoring peace through strength, given how apparently unwilling they've been to invest accordingly in the national defense or in other critical instruments of national power," said McConnell.
"I am very concerned the requested base budget for defense does not reflect a realistic path to building the military capability we need to achieve President Trump's Peace Through Strength agenda," said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala.
With friends like these…
Vought fired back at Congressional defense advocates and their allegations that the budget request undercut the military.
"It's an inaccurate charge. We provide a trillion dollars in national defense spending. 13% increase. We do it in two components," said Vought. "We use discretionary spending. And then we put in a historic paradigm all of our increases on defense and Homeland Security. We use it in reconciliation so that we only need to use Republican votes. We don't want Democrats to have the filibuster as a veto to then hijack the appropriations process and say no to the Homeland Security spending."
Let me fillet that statement for you.
In other words, Vought asserts that some of the funding increases for the Pentagon will come through "budget reconciliation," the process Republicans are now using to pass the big, beautiful bill. Republicans intend to pass that package with only GOP votes. But if Republicans included that military money in a "regular" appropriations bill, Democrats may demand "parity." They would insist that non-defense programs score the same increase in exchange for advancing those bills – and voting to overcome a filibuster. So Vought argues his approach keeps Democrats from holding Pentagon dollars hostage in exchange for money targeted toward other programs.
But Democrats are focused on what Republicans may try to do with Medicare and Medicaid. They argue that Republicans are teeing up cuts.
"Hospitals will close. Nursing homes will shut down. Communities will be hurt. And Americans will die," said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
Republicans insist those programs won't face cuts.
"The question is, will we be susceptible to the fear-mongering and the false rhetoric that you just heard from the Democrat Minority Leader in the House? And this is the same tired play they run," said House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, on Fox News. "We will be rewarded because we're doing this for the sustainability of these programs for the most vulnerable."
Still, even some remain apprehensive about how the GOP will handle those programs.
"If you want to be in the minority forever, then go ahead and do Medicaid cuts," said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. "That would be catastrophically stupid."
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., met President Trump at the White House late last week to discuss the big, beautiful bill. The White House gave Congressional leaders a wish list of items it wants in the bill – and what can fall by the wayside.
Tax credits for electric vehicles are out.
"I don't have a problem if somebody wants to go buy an electric vehicle. I just don't think hardworking Americans should be subsidizing that," said House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wisc., on Fox News.
Republicans hope to use money generated from the sale of EVs to shore up the Highway Trust Fund. The government used the federal gas tax to pay for construction of roads and bridges. But Congress hasn't adjusted the gas tax since the mid-1990s. Plus, more EVs and hybrids are now on the road. And conventional vehicles which rely on gas are more fuel efficient. So this shores up some of those depleted coffers.
Johnson is sticking by his goal to pass the bill through the House by Memorial Day. But some Republicans doubt that timeline.
"There's no way," said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., on Fox Business. "Unfortunately, President Trump chose the one big, beautiful (bill). What he should have done is the multiple-step process."
In other words, lawmakers could have addressed the border, tax cuts and spending cuts in individual chunks. Loading everything onto one legislative truck makes this hard.
So can the House approve this in two weeks? There's not a lot of consensus yet. But maybe they'll try to wear Members down.
"We will stay until we pass it," said one senior House GOP leadership source.
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