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Lindsey Graham: Trump’s budget ‘doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell’

by Jordain Carney - 05/24/17 1:50 PM ET

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) on Wednesday threw cold water on President Trump’s budget, saying there’s no chance it will pass Congress.

“The budget proposed by the president doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of passing,” Graham said during an Appropriations subcommittee hearing.

Graham pressed military officials at a hearing on the Navy and Marine Corps 2018 fiscal year budget if they thought the president’s budget had a “pathway forward.” When the officials hesitated, Graham added: “I don’t, so that’s probably a question for me.”

{mosads}Trump released a budget on Tuesday that would make deep cuts in nondefense spending while increasing military spending.

But GOP lawmakers have knocked the proposal, arguing that it both doesn’t increase defense spending enough while also proposing unrealistic cuts for some domestic programs.

Lawmakers are expected to set aside the White House’s budget proposal and instead craft their own legislation later this year.

Graham, who backs more defense money, has also grilled the administration over a nearly 30 percent cut to the State Department’s budget that some GOP senators have warned can’t pass the upper chamber.

Lawmakers will need to reach a deal on spending by October if they want to avoid mandatory across-the-board spending cuts scheduled to go back into effect.

Graham, acknowledging that he was getting “a little preachy here” during Wednesday’s hearing, threw his support behind forming a “super committee two,” referring to a 2011 group that failed to reach a debt reduction deal.

“Right now in May there is no plan to fix sequestration. There’s not a bipartisan effort, there’s not a sole party effort to relieve the suffering that we have created … from insane budget cuts,” Graham said.

Presidents’ budget proposals frequently gain little traction in Congress. Republicans forced multiple votes on the Obama administration’s proposals, including a 98-1 vote against the measure in 2015.

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