A battle over a proposed Republican budget is quickly becoming the latest front in the ongoing civil war among Republicans. After unveiling the spending blueprint Tuesday, House Budget Committee Chair Diane Black, R-Tenn., quickly decried the firefight as an exercise in “shooting ourselves in the foot.”
Black has the unenviable job of defending a budget that’s under attack from every branch on her party’s family tree. In an interview with the Washington Examiner, though, she explicitly rebutted House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C.
After Meadows told reporters “with 100 percent confidence” Monday that the budget wouldn’t pass, Black fired back that she wished the conservative would at least take “a bite at the apple.”
“I would’ve liked for him to have been excited about the $200 billion,” Black said referring to the cost-cutting measures in the document. “Obviously, he and some of his colleagues in his group would like this to be $400 billion, and I have to remind them that this is a floor not a ceiling.”
Since its founding two years ago, deficit hawks have flocked to the ranks of the Freedom Caucus. Black has been busy trying to convince those conservatives that her budget blueprint is just a starting place and there’s “potential for a greater savings.”
But each time Black makes that argument, she risks alienating centrists within the GOP. While the Freedom Caucus demands more cuts, the Tuesday Group insists on less. Back in June, those centrists sent a letter telegraphing their opposition to mandatory spending cuts.
Considering the bog that’s the current political landscape, it’s difficult to see how Black could trim even more. The blueprint promises elixir-like results, trimming a $700 billion deficit into a $9 billion surplus in a decade, and requires dramatic action, hacking away $5.4 trillion in spending from programs like Medicaid, Obamacare, and food stamps.
The Associated Press described Black’s ambitious budgeting as “unprecedented and politically unworkable.”
A Freedom Caucus spokesperson did not respond for comment on why conservatives are pushing for even more cuts. But one of their number, Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., told the Washington Examiner that “$200 billion, if that was actually done in a reconciliation bill, it’d be the most significant number done around here in a long time.”
Of course, passing a budget resolution and making actual cuts are two different things. The budget is a purely aspirational document. Conservatives have backed budget resolutions in the past, only to feel burned when the spending cuts don’t materialize.
The Budget Committee will vote on the proposal Wednesday, and Black hopes the blueprint will advance for a floor vote before Congress breaks for its August recess.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
