WASHINGTON — House Republicans advanced a budget framework through a committee on Monday, setting up a final vote to pursue spending priorities for border, defense and energy initiatives as well as to extend President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts package.
All nine GOP members of the House Rules Committee approved the blueprint to cut at least $1.5 trillion and as much as $2 trillion in government spending, while capping the total increase to the deficit at $4.5 trillion over the next decade.
The cuts will be carried out in the House by the Energy and Commerce Committee, which will seek an $880 billion reduction; the Education and Workforce Committee, which will pursue a $330 billion reduction; and the Agriculture Committee, which will look for $230 billion in cuts.
The panels oversee some critical federal benefit programs including Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
The resolution also authorizes up to $300 billion in defense and border security funding and raises the US debt ceiling by $4 trillion.
The four Democrats on the panel opposed it.
“Despite what my Democrat colleagues are likely to assert, it doesn’t contain any specific programmatic assumptions or cuts,” said House Rules Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC). “The committees are left to best determine their priorities when meeting their instructions.”
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the Rules panel, slammed the budget resolution for threatening Medicaid during Monday’s hearing, since the trillions in cuts can likely only be achieved by dipping into social safety net funding.
“There is nothing ‘America First’ about this budget,” McGovern said. “This is about gutting programs that help everyday people, so that Republicans can give more handouts to billionaires and special interests.”
Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), who chairs the House Budget Committee, fired back that former President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda greenlit between $700 billion and $800 billion in “green energy corporate tax giveaways,” of which “70% of the value went to China.”
“Skyrocketing prices pummeled the bottom line of American businesses, eroded Americans’ purchasing power, and stretched family budgets to their breaking point,” Arrington said in his opening statement at the Rules hearing.
“Today, we take an important step in unlocking the policies that will provide critical relief for families, reignite an economic comeback and restore fiscal health to our nation by reining in Washington’s runaway taxes, spending, and regulations.”
A full vote on the budget bill is expected in the lower chamber on Tuesday, even as a handful of Republican lawmakers are still on the fence about some of the programs that might be targeted for cuts or about the overall reduction in spending.
Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) said in a statement Sunday she’s a hard “NO on the current version,” and Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) joined her in opposition on Monday evening as the Rules panel deliberated.
If more than one Republican votes it down, the resolution will fail on the House floor, assuming all lawmakers are present.
“I don’t think anybody wants to be in front of this train — I think they want to be on it,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Monday at an event on Capitol Hill with advocacy group Americans for Prosperity.
The resolution will provide the best path forward to cut down on the cost of living for Americans by avoiding “the largest tax increase in US history” at year’s end when Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 expires, according to Johnson.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent similarly warned in his confirmation hearing that the law’s expiration would spell “economic calamity” for working- and middle-class families due to the $4 trillion tax hike — and potentially threaten the US dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency.
While some like Arrington have referred to the budget plan as “balanced,” the libertarian-leaning Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said Monday: “If the Republican budget passes, the deficit gets worse, not better.”
It’s also unclear whether other tax changes sought by Trump — such as eliminating taxes on tips, Social Security and overtime pay — will be included in the final bill, though some GOP reps are whipping hard for an increase to the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction cap in deep-blue states like New York and California.
Mike Doble, who owns the Explorium Brewpub in Milwaukee and was at the Americans for Prosperity event, told The Post that failing to renew the tax cuts would be “devastating” for him and other small-business owners.
“Our margins are so slim we reinvest everything that we make back into the business,” Doble said. “If you’re not growing, you’re pretty much dying in the business.”
“There are some things that the Republicans need to make good on promises because they got a lot of votes and people, especially in my business, you know, on promises made and we’re hoping that those are promises,” he added. “Tax on tips is a big one.”
The president endorsed House Republicans approach to put all the agenda items into “one, big beautiful bill” last week — rather than to pursue GOP senators’ goal of splitting off the tax package into a second piece of legislation.
Budget analysts have estimated that extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts could increase the deficit by between about $3.5 trillion and $3.9 trillion over the next 10 years.
The House speaker said he anticipated passing the border, defense, energy and tax items via budget reconciliation, which requires only a simple majority approval in both chambers, by the first week of April.
