Skip to content

What They’re Saying: Republicans Rush to Blast “Draconian” Trump Budget With “Very Harmful” Cuts That “Do Not Make Sense”

REPUBLICANS ACROSS THE IDEOLOGICAL SPECTRUM BLAST TRUMP BUDGET; “THEY’RE DEEP, DEEP CUTS”

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA): “I don’t think the president’s budget is going anywhere.” Reporters then asked what signal the president’s budget cuts send to the American people. “It is no signal of mine,” he responded. [Washington Examiner, 5/23/17]

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA): Sen. Bill Cassidy says Trump's proposed budget contradicts his campaign promises [Vox Twitter, 5/23/17]

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC): “The budget is dead, OK? We're not going to enact the president's budget, but it's Mick Mulvaney's job to sell the budget and be a loyal soldier and try to listen to Congress.” [E&E News, 5/23/17]

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ): “President Trump’s $603 billion defense budget request is inadequate to the challenges we face, illegal under current law, and part of an overall budget proposal that is dead on arrival in Congress.” [Press Release, 5/23/17]

Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (R-TX): .@JohnCornyn says Trump's budget is “dead on arrival” [NBC News Twitter, 5/22/17]

Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV): “From slashing funding for important public lands programs to its renewed effort to revive the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, the President’s budget request contains several anti-Nevada provisions.” [Press Release, 5/23/17]

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS): “No” Sen Roberts says when asked if R's will go along with big cuts to the safety net.  Says he has “no idea” what Trump is thinking. [AP Twitter, 5/22/17]

Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY): “It'll face a tough sled here,” said veteran Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky. Asked about the impact on his constituents from reductions in such programs as food stamps, Rogers said, “These cuts that are being proposed are draconian. They're not mere shavings, they're deep, deep cuts.” [AP, 5/23/17]

Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI): “Many of the proposed cuts to important domestic programs that many Michiganders rely on are, frankly, non-starters. Of particular concern is funding for our Great Lakes and the National Institutes of Health.” [Press Release, 5/23/17]

Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI): Asked if Mick Mulvaney is the only person who likes Trump's budget, Upton says Mulvaney might not even vote for it if still in the House [AP Twitter, 5/23/17]

Rep. John Faso (R-NY): “Deep cuts to domestic programs, however, would threaten Upstate New Yorkers at a time when a still-struggling regional economy and fragile jobs market have left many families concerned about the future.” [Press Release, 5/23/17]

David Stockman, OMB Director under President Reagan: “I see no way that’s going to remotely happen,” …  “It assumes you’re going to go 206 months without a recession, which has never happened” “This budget is dead before arrival, so he might as well be out of town.” [New York Times, 5/22/17]

 

TRUMP BUDGET HEALTH CARE CUTS “DRACONIAN”

 

Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY): “It's a problem — it's a big problem,” said Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), the chairman of a House Appropriations subcommittee, of a proposed $610 billion reduction in Medicaid spending. “I've got one of the poorest districts in the country with lots of Medicaid recipients as well as other programs. ...The cuts are draconian.” [Washington Post, 5/23/17]

 

Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC): Asked about the CHIP cuts, Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.) warned there was such a thing as too many cuts. “There will be some concerns if we go too deep in some of these areas,” he said.” [Washington Post, 5/23/17]

 

TRUMP BUDGET WOULD UNDERMINE RESEARCH PROGRAMS WITH BIPARTISAN SUPPORT

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC): Other senators took aim at some of Trump’s steepest cuts. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., added that the National Institutes of Health is “a national treasure.” Trump would cut more than $1 billion from NIH next year. [Washington Examiner, 5/23/17]

Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI): “Many of the proposed cuts to important domestic programs that many Michiganders rely on are, frankly, non-starters. Of particular concern is funding for our Great Lakes and the National Institutes of Health.” [Press Release, 5/23/17]

Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID):  Many of the cuts, including those to energy science programs, “do not make sense,” said Simpson, adding the budget won't pass the House without a rewrite. [E&E News, 5/23/17]

TRUMP BUDGET WOULD WRECK KEY RURAL PROGRAMS AMERICANS DEPEND ON

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA): And Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, criticized cuts to a flood protection system that Louisiana relies on. “I strongly oppose,” the proposed reductions, Cassidy said. “Our coast line — we just need to that to keep another Katrina from bashing our state.” [NBC News, 5/23/17]

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS): Senate Agriculture chairman @SenPatRoberts on crop insurance cuts in Trump budget: “not viable” and ‘very harmful’” [KC Star Twitter, 5/23/17]

 

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS): “It’s just a lot of people who don’t know what the hell is going on in farm country.” -- Sen. Pat Roberts on the budget's agricultural cuts. [WSJ Twitter, 5/23/17]

Former Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI): “This [Great Lakes Restoration Initiative] is a really small amount of money, really, and it's of great significance to the states that voted for him. These states can't absorb (this cut). This is a time where I hope the president will reconsider.” [Crain’s Detroit, 5/23/17]

THE TRUMP BUDGET EVEN ATTACKS MEALS ON WHEELS

Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK): Cole predicted that many of the deep spending cuts, like those to Meals on Wheels and the National Institutes of Health, would anger Republicans and Democrats alike. … “We have to avoid the temptation of giving the president everything he wants because if we gave him everything want into writing we couldn’t enact it,” Cole said. [Washington Post, 5/23/17]

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC): “Meals on Wheels, even for some of us who are considered to be fiscal hawks, may be a bridge too far.” [New York Times, 5/22/17]

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC): “Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, said he was encouraged by early reports of new curbs on food stamps, family welfare and other spending, but he said he drew the line on cuts to Meals on Wheels — a charity that White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney suggested was ineffective earlier this year. ‘I’ve delivered meals to a lot of people that perhaps it’s their only hot meal of the day,’ Meadows said.” [Washington Post, 5/23/17]

AND PRESIDENT TRUMP WANTS AMERICANS TO PAY FOR THE WALL – NOT MEXICO

Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI): “I thought Mexico was going to pay for the wall, why is this in our budget?” [AP, 5/23/17]

EVEN REPUBLICANS ADMIT THIS BUDGET DEPENDS ON VOODOO ECONOMICS; “I’M NOT SEEING HOW YOU GET THERE MATHEMATICALLY”

Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC): “3 percent, I’m not seeing how you get there mathematically.” “It makes for a make-believe debate that I find frustrating.” [AP Twitter, 5/23/17]

Steve Bell, a senior advisor at the Bipartisan Policy Center and a former staff director at the Senate Budget Committee: “‘Without violating some of the most basic laws of economics and history, we are not going to get the kind of growth that will yield a balanced budget in 10 years” [New York Times, 5/22/17]

Jim Nussle, OMB Director under President George W. Bush: “When you say we're going to get to 3 percent growth and then you paint a picture of how you're going to get to 3 percent growth, most economists say that's unrealistic given the current trend line,” … “Over the history, CBO has been closer to being correct on these numbers. Being at 1.9 as opposed to 3 is probably more realistic,’ he added.” [CNBC, 5/23/17]