He testified on Wednesday before the House Budget Committee and on Thursday to the Senate budget committee. Vought faced a torrent of criticism from Democrats over spending cut proposals in the fiscal 2027 budget, as well as plans to dramatically boost defense spending.

The budget would increase defense spending to $1.5 trillion, a massive increase of about 50% from the previous year, which included the large increase in defense spending from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

The budget also contains deep cuts to government agencies to offset that new spending. Spending on nondefense programs would be reduced by $73 billion, or 10%.

“This budget builds on the president’s vision by continuing to constrain non defense spending and reform the federal government,” Vought told the House panel.

Vought defends Pentagon spending boost

During his testimony, Vought defended the plan for a massive increase in defense spending.

Vought conceded that the increase in defense spending is “sizable,” but told lawmakers that the request is so high because the increase is “meant for significant paradigm-shifting investments.”

“For instance, the president and his Department of War are exhibiting tremendous leadership to build ships, planes, drones, munitions and satellites faster without the backlog of status quo,” he said.

Vought said that doing so “requires multi-year agreements to purchase into the future.”

One member of the Senate Budget Committee who was pleased with the proposal to boost Pentagon funding was the panel’s chairman, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). He praised the move.

“I’m enthusiastic about the defense part,” Graham said.

Vought blames inflation on Biden

Inflation and affordability are the biggest concerns for voters, according to polling. During the hearing, Vought and Republicans sought to cast the blame on current inflationary woes on former President Joe Biden, who was president when the U.S. experienced the worst inflationary wave since the 1970s.

House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) pointed out during the hearing that inflation was much higher under Biden than during Trump’s first year of his second term.

“The average inflation rate — it got as high as 9% — but the average was 5%, the average inflation rate during President Trump’s first year, and it went down — 2.7%,” Arrington said.

The chairman also talked about how gas prices were lower during Trump’s first year than when Biden was in office. It is worth noting that, since the war in Iran, both inflation and gas prices have lurched significantly higher.

“We expect a bump up in that for a time being, we expect it to go back down,” Arrington said of the current price surge.

During the hearing, Vought put the blame squarely at the feet of Biden and congressional Democrats. He said a flurry of spending in the form of pandemic relief as well as the Inflation Reduction Act juiced demand and created the inflationary environment.

“It was not because of supply chains or economic shocks, it was because spending was dramatically increased at a time where there was no need for it,” Vought said.

“And so this administration has come into the economic disaster which was the Biden administration and gotten costs lower, it has ensured that we have fiscal progress so that the era of big spending is over,” he continued.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) also tied inflation to the spending of the Biden era.

“The amount of money that President Biden and my Democratic friends spent was so outrageous that it resulted in 9% inflation,” he said.

Democrats decry spending cuts

Democrats on the House and Senate budget panels pushed back hard on the proposed non-defense spending reductions. They highlighted specific programs that could face cuts.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), ranking member of the Budget Committee, agreed with Vought’s assessment that the Trump budget represented “a historic paradigm shift.”

“I certainly agree with that, because this is an extraordinary families-lose, billionaires-win budget,” Merkley said.

Some, like Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA), the top Democrat on the Budget Committee, drew a bright line between the big spending boost for the Pentagon and cuts to other parts of the government.

“I believe the world is at its best when the United States is the strongest military,” Boyle said. “The idea that we’re going to pay for a 42% increase in this military, in this Department of Defense, and at the same time cut Medicaid, Medicare, not pay for child care … is a reflection of priorities that are out of whack.”

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) also compared the cuts to the Iran war.

“We should be sending more funding to our schools right here in America, not, in my opinion, buying more missiles that Trump can fire on schools in Iran,” Murray said.

Murray also pressed Vought on whether he knew how much money has so far been spent during the war. Vought said that he didn’t have those figures.

During the hearing, Vought defended the cuts, for instance, pointing out how non-governmental organizations are involved on foreign aid spending.

“Many of our concerns on the foreign aid was because they were going through NGOs that don’t share this administration’s perspective on a host of issues,” he told lawmakers.

One Big Beautiful debate

During the hearing, Vought and Republicans touted last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which some in the GOP have tried to rebrand as the working families tax cut plan.

Republicans were able to push the One Big Beautiful Bill Act across the finish line on a party-line basis over the summer and Trump signed the massive fiscal legislative package into law on Independence Day.

Most Americans would have seen a tax increase if the bill hadn’t passed, and the bill added popular tax provisions, such as no tax on tips and no tax on overtime. Vought dinged Democrats for voting against the legislation.

“This side of the aisle would have said we’re not going to extend those tax cuts, and that would have led to an economic depression,” the OMB director said. “The notion that you’re going to raise people’s taxes by 30% or 40% and not impact the economy is simply not true.”

Boyle attacked the legislation for its deficit impact.

“Despite your rhetoric about this Budget Committee succeeding on deficit and debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office, as well as other non partisan groups both left-of-center and right-of-center, have said that single piece of legislation adds more to our deficit and debt than any other piece of legislation passed by Congress in American history,” Boyle said.

Democrats attack Iran war

During the back-to-back hearings, Democrats also used the opportunity to savage Trump and the administration for the ongoing war in Iran, which they argued was not necessary.

“A reckless war that has strengthened the Right, the hardliners, that has weakened the reformers that has enriched Russia,” Merkley said of the conflict.

Graham, meanwhile, defended the defense spending and asked Vought whether he thought that if the Iranians had a nuclear weapon they would use it.

“We certainly wouldn’t want to tempt them to use it, that’s a key foreign policy objective of this president,” Vought responded.

TRUMP SETS STAGE FOR SHOWDOWN WITH POWELL OVER WHO RUNS THE FED IN MID-MAY

“We don’t need to play that game — if you’re Israel, you certainly don’t want to play that game,” Graham added.

Boyle also emphasized that the surging gas prices being felt by consumers now are directly linked to the conflict in Iran, which he characterized as Trump’s “war of choice.”