ABC News reports that President Trump may ask Congress to use its recission authority to slash some of the programs in the $1.3 trillion spending bill it passed a couple of weeks ago:
Trump has been talking with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., about the plan over the past couple of days, according to an aide to the House leader who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private talks….The idea emerged as lawmakers get hammered back home for the $1.3 trillion spending package that, while beefing up funds for the military, also increases spending on transportation, child care and other domestic programs in a compromise with Democrats that Trump derided as a “waste” and “giveaways.”
….[McCarthy’s spokesman] didn’t specify how much spending could be rescinded or in what categories. But Trump would likely seek to focus on domestic spending he has attacked in recent tweets.
If Trump actually goes through with this, I have no doubt that his request will be focused primarily on poor people. A recission bill requires a majority vote in the Senate, which means that Republicans have to stay united to pass it. Aside from spending on poor people, I’m not sure there’s anything else that they hate almost unanimously.
The big problem, of course, is that plenty of people in the Senate made commitments to Democrats on the spending bill. If they break those commitments, how will they ever get agreement on a budget in the future? For this reason, I think that passage in the Senate is pretty unlikely.
