The White House is holding back on issuing any specific veto threats over President Obama’s budget priorities, although top administration officials say the GOP blueprint must include a plan to get rid of sequestration and return discretionary spending to 2013 levels.
Republicans immediately declared major aspects of Obama’s $4 trillion budget non-starters on Capitol Hill, especially when it comes to raising taxes on the wealthy to fund tax breaks for middle-class earners and new spending programs.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the administration is deliberately trying to avoid early brinksmanship on the budget.
“We haven’t seen anything from Republicans yet. … The president has said he is willing to consider good ideas specifically if they are going to benefit middle-class families,” he said.
Still, Earnest said the president would reject any budget that did not include a plan to undo sequestration and return discretionary spending to 2013 levels.
“Those are essentially deal-breakers for him,” Earnest said.
Obama’s budget proposal would lift spending caps imposed during a series of intense negotiations with Republicans over the past four years and increase domestic discretionary spending by $37 billion on presidential initiatives such as the plan to make community college free for every American.
It also would include additional $38 billion on defense spending in response to threats posed by Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Total discretionary defense spending would be $561 billion for 2016, and domestic discretionary spending would be $526 billion.
While Republicans on Capitol Hill agree with Obama when it comes to lifting the sequester caps on defense spending, the GOP leadership is opposed to expanding domestic discretionary spending to the level the president wants.
When it comes to defense spending and confronting the Islamic State, Earnest acknowledged that Obama and Republicans are “consistent in their concerns.”
The administration is arguing that domestic spending — as a percentage of GDP — is at historically low levels under sequestration.
Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan on Monday argued that there is a “growing bipartisan recognition that discretionary spending” is not where it should be.
When it comes to national security, he said, spending needs to include not just more money to fight the Islamic State and protect the homeland, but also to preserve the commitments the country has made to veterans.
Joseph Lawler contributed to this report.
