WASHINGTON, D.C. – After a brief showdown with fiscally conservative Republicans, the House narrowly passed the President’s budget blueprint. Two Republicans voted across party lines on the measure. All Democrats voted against it.
“Today’s vote was basically the bridge to get to plan President Trump- what he’s said: create a golden era of growth, prosperity and manufacturing and strength for the United States of America,” said Rep. Dan Meuser (R- PA).
Passage of this blueprint means Republicans will work to enact the President’s agenda of bolstering up border security, reducing the size of the federal government and implementing tax cuts.
“They want to cut taxes for billionaires and make our kids pay for it,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D- NY).
“House Democrats apparently stick together on these votes,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D- NY) referencing to their party’s unity on this measure.
Several fiscal hawks said they supported the measure after getting reassurance from party leaders they will seek to cut at least one and a half trillion in spending. This budget process could take weeks, if not months, to create the legislative text. It will face another round of voting.
“Now the hard work comes where we actually write the bill,” said Rep. Nick Langworthy (R- NY). “Committee by committee and we’ll work with the Senate.”
“The hard work will be when we go into negotiations with the Senate,” said Rep. Jack Bergman (R- MI). “They seem to have an issue with the potential deficit spending that they’re still looking at and we are the fiscal hawks who are gonna spend the dollars wisely in the end. Even if it’s one dollar in deficit reduction, just to start that reduction curve to reduce the deficit.”
“I’m extremely concerned about the national debt and that’s what reconciliation is all about, bending that spending curve,” added Rep. Langworthy.
Democrats claim Republicans could try to slash spending for things like Medicaid and nutritional programs to make these spending cuts. Speaker of the House insists that health care and other services would be spared. Republicans are instead saying their focus on cuts will be following DOGE’s efforts: targeting waste, fraud and abuse.
