Conservatives in Congress want a minuscule shift in spending, according to one well-known lawmaker, to make up for a record $1.07 trillion federal budget. Unfortunately for them, even that may be too much for congressional leaders.
“We would vote for the clearing-the-barn, crap sandwich number on the discretionary side, but we’re saying all you have to do is cut [$30 billion] from the mandatory side, the other $3 trillion of the budget,” Virginia Republican Rep. Dave Brat told the Washington Examiner.
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“There’s a false narrative floating out in the press that the House Freedom Caucus and the Republican Study Committee, with its 170 members, are against the budget, and there aren’t enough votes for a budget,” Brat said. “There’s also been some idea floated in the press that there are more votes for a $1.07 trillion budget than for a $1.04 trillion budget.”
“That is false in terms of the real story. The real story is that there is a yes vote to be had. That is the part that’s not getting out,” he added.
Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan last month proposed a budget for fiscal 2017 that includes $1.07 in discretionary spending. That’s distinct from $3 trillion in mandatory spending, which is needed for programs like Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and interest payments on nearly $20 trillion in federal debt.
Conservatives in the 40-member House Freedom Caucus, along with some members of the Republican Study Committee, have asked that this year’s discretionary figure be $30 billion less to account for overspending by that amount last year.
That would cut the overall number to $1.047 trillion, just below the $1.067 trillion budget that passed in 2016 under the supervision of President Obama and former Speaker John Boehner.
In the event that more than 29 Republicans defect from the party’s 247-member conference over that figure, Ryan will need to rely on Democrats to pass the budget. Yet at the same time, Ryan has promised that he would seek major reforms to unfunded liabilities next year. If he’s unwilling this year to shift one percent of that $3 trillion figure in order to pay for increased spending on the discretionary side, conservatives wonder whether it’s going to happen at all.
“You’ve got a $100 trillion unfunded liability problem,” Brat said. “So out of a $100 trillion problem, that Speaker Ryan said next year we’re going to have a ‘big, bold vision’ on, $30 billion is a down payment this year to make up for the crap sandwich. And then we all get to yes.”
“There’s an easy yes that’s sitting out there to be had for the House Conference. I don’t understand why we aren’t there,” he added. “In my view, based on seeing the conference, there are yes votes. We can make the deadline. If people don’t want to meet the deadline, I don’t understand it.”
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Congress has until April 15 to pass a budget blueprint. If it fails to do so, it becomes more likely that the budget will pass as a massive omnibus package later in the year.
