Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, said Wednesday that President Trump’s 2020 budget proposal released this week establishes the administration’s priorities and was the result of “some pretty tough decisions.”
“First of all, let’s remember what the president’s budget does. It is kind of a messaging document. It establishes the priorities of this administration for the next year,” Womack, who also sits on the House Appropriations Committee, told Hill.TV’s Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton on “Rising.”
“It’s sent up to Capitol Hill, where the legislative branch, the Congress, which has the Article I power of the purse, begins to sort through those priorities and decides what we agree with, what we don’t agree with,” he added.
Trump’s proposed budget request includes large cuts to domestic spending, including programs like Medicare and Medicaid, while boosting defense spending and requesting $8.6 billion in new funding for a border wall.
“Anytime that you’re dealing with a deficit of a trillion dollars and a national debt of $22 trillion dollars, if you start down the road of trying to cut into those deficits, and ultimately that debt, you’re going to have to make some tough decisions,” Womack said. “So the president’s budget, when it came, came with some pretty tough decisions. That’s going to get pushback from the other side, as we saw yesterday.”
The White House budget request was dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled House, but it sets the stage for a funding battle later this year that could lead to another shutdown showdown over the border wall.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Sunday slammed Trump for including border wall funding in his budget proposal.
“President Trump hurt millions of Americans and caused widespread chaos when he recklessly shut down the government to try to get his expensive and ineffective wall, which he promised would be paid for by Mexico,” the Democratic leaders said in a joint statement.
“Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again,” they added. “We hope he learned his lesson.”
— Julia Manchester
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