05/16/2019

Trump Open to Bipartisan Budget Deal

A deal is needed before strict spending cuts go into effect this fall

This week, President Donald Trump signaled he could be open to a deal with Democrats to raise the budget caps that will cause strict spending cuts in the fall.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) met with Trump Tuesday and laid out a plan to navigate several fiscal deadlines looming this fall, including raising the debt ceiling, avoiding billions of dollars in automatic spending cuts known as the sequester and funding the government.

In early 2018, President Trump cut a deal with Democrats to raise the caps in 2018 and 2019 by nearly $300 billion but the caps in place for 2020 and 2021 remain at the levels enacted in the Budget Control Act of 2011, and if they aren’t raised, would result in $71 billion in defense spending cuts and $55 billion in domestic spending cuts.

Earlier this spring, amid division in their caucus, House Democrats punted on putting out a budget resolution, and instead released a plan to increase military and domestic spending caps by more than $350 billion over the next two years. McConnell is urging the president to do the caps deal with Democrats despite their bitter disagreement over border wall funding and other points of contention.

This article was provided to OSAE by the Power of A and ASAE's Inroads.