Republican leaders in Congress say they will go their own way on spending and largely ignore the budget President Trump sent to Congress on Tuesday, underlining a divide between the White House and his congressional allies on spending issues.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) downplayed the significance of setting Trump’s budget aside as he told reporters that he will soon begin negotiations with Democrats on the top-line numbers for discretionary spending bills.
Asked about Trump’s budget, McConnell said it’s traditional for Congress to discard much of a president’s blueprint.
“We’ll be taking into account what the president is recommending, but it will not be determinative in every respect,” he said. “I didn’t engage in a ringing endorsement of President [George W.] Bush’s budgets either.”
Others in the Senate GOP conference immediately distanced themselves from Trump’s budget.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said the plan cuts “too close to the bone,” while Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) called it “anti-Nevada,” citing cuts to “important public lands programs.”
Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) has previously warned that not much more can be cut from discretionary spending accounts, which cover popular programs such as medical research at the National Institutes of Health.
Trump’s proposed cuts to Medicaid were making some Republicans nervous.
The fiscal 2018 budget assumes that the House GOP’s legislation to repeal and replace ObamaCare will become law, which would cut Medicaid by $839 billion. Trump’s budget then proposes an additional $610 billion in cuts.
“I have a major problem with that,” said Capito, who has voiced her concerns about steep Medicaid cuts to the 13-member working group that McConnell has convened to negotiate the Senate healthcare reform bill.
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NEW: Republicans say they'll largely ignore Trump's budget https://t.co/697hKM9Clp pic.twitter.com/nLCFrHYVBo
— The Hill (@thehill) May 24, 2017
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