President Donald Trump Thursday night dismissed the idea of a bipartisan two-year spending caps deal to avoid billions in mandatory defense and nondefense spending cuts, Politico.com reported.
“House Democrats want to negotiate a $2 TRILLION spending increase but can’t even pass their own plan. We can’t afford it anyway, and it’s not happening!” Trump tweeted.
Earlier in the week House Democrats failed to gather enough support for a $1.3 trillion budget that would have eliminated $126 billion in budget cuts for fiscal years 2020 and 2021 beginning Oct. 1, as ADC reported.
The scrapped House budget vote would have increased defense spending by $17 billion and nondefense spending by $34 billion for 2020, but the administration says the legislation would increase spending nearly $2 trillion over 10 years.
The administration’s 2020 budget keeps the mandatory nondefense cuts, but proposes diverting billions in DOD funds into a Pentagon account that is not subject to caps. The move would need to be approved by Congress, driving the need a larger bipartisan budget deal to resolve spending differences.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced last week that he has engaged in talks with the White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to negotiate a bipartisan budget agreement.
Army photo by Sgt. James McCann
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