House Democrats led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are NOT going to rubber stamp the HIUGE money increases for the military or give money for a Trump border wall….
They ARE going to hold out for more spending on domestic programs, something Republican do NOT like to do….
This is going on while the countries debt/deficit is running off the chart due to contiuing tax cuts for the rich , import tax increases for consumers, and a softening economy ….
Senate Republicans are rebelling against the Trump administration’s proposed fix to a fiscal pile-up this fall, rejecting a one-year stopgap funding bill as insufficient for the military.
In a letter to President Donald Trump’s budget negotiators led by close Trump ally Sen. David Perdue of Georgia, 15 Senate Republicans on Wednesday asked the White House to avoid imposing “draconian” conditions that would render the Pentagon “incapable of increasing readiness, recapitalizing our force, or rationalizing funding.”
“While some members of the Administration have suggested a yearlong CR as a viable path forward, this must be avoided,” the senators wrote. “Simply put, our adversaries do not handcuff their militaries with funding gimmicks like continuing resolutions — nor should we.”
The letter was addressed to acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, acting Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The senators added that a continuing resolution would stall a military pay raise and make spending far more inefficient.
A senior administration official said that the letter from the senators ignores the House Democrats’ internal divisions “and lacks a plan to stop Democrats from dismantling the president’s deregulatory and border security agendas with poison-pill riders.”
“If these members have another plan for fiscal restraint, then we’re all ears,” the official said on Wednesday afternoon.
The war of words Wednesday underscores unrest in the GOP ranks about deadlocked budget negotiations, which Republicans have blamed on Democrats’ push for higher domestic spending. As of Wednesday, there were no new meetings planned between congressional leaders and the administration after June’s impasse. At the time, the White House proposed a stopgap funding bill aimed at avoiding a shutdown and stiff, automatic budget cuts.
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell panned a continuing resolution, and many of his rank-and-file members feel the same way…..
The military budget should be cut.
I agree that the military budget SHOULD be cut….
I’ll have a post on it’s first actual audit later….
It was judged a ‘failure’….