President Donald Trump should reject any deal with Democrats to set new spending levels and extend the debt limit without getting significant spending cuts, conservative House Republicans are insisting, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
“We believe the White House and congressional leadership should be prepared to walk away from this if necessary,” said Rep. Mike Johnson, chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee.
The two sides have reportedly agreed on raising the debt ceiling for two years and setting spending levels but not on how to pay for the increases above limits set in a 2011 law, with Johnson saying the proposal currently includes a $320 billion increase above those limits.
He demands that the cost of any deal be fully offset by other spending cuts and include an extension of the limits set in the 2011 law.
The Trump administration has indicated it wouldn’t accept less than $150 billion in spending cuts, but its list of potential offsets has been called a nonstarter by a Democratic aide.
Pressure to secure a deal this week is great, because the U.S. could exceed the debt ceiling in early September, before lawmakers return from a summer recess.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell supports a deal, telling Fox Business “it will give us a chance to run the government in an orderly fashion for the next year and a half."
He added that "We will probably end up having to spend more on the domestic side than we would like to, but that is compromise" in a divided government.
GOP Rep. Chip Roy emphasized that his Republican colleagues in the Senate weren’t sufficiently committed to cutting spending, saying they “will never not find a corner where they can go and hide.”
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