Trump has no comment as Congress passes $1.2 trillion spending package

While conservatives in the House and Senate fiercely opposed the $1.2 trillion federal funding bill passed Friday, the de facto Republican leader remained silent.

Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee in 2024, has not commented publicly, and his campaign has responded to multiple requests for comment on the bill, which President Biden signed into law on Saturday. I didn’t respond.

“This agreement represents a compromise and means neither side got everything it wanted,” Democratic President Biden said in a statement. “But it rejects extreme cuts from House Republicans, expands access to child care, invests in cancer research, funds mental health and substance use care, and strengthens American leadership abroad.” “It provides resources to advance and secure the border that my administration has successfully sought to include. That’s good news for the American people.”

Early Saturday morning, the Senate passed the spending bill 74-24, averting a lengthy partial government shutdown. The bill passed the House on Friday by a vote of 286-134, with a majority of 113 Republicans voting against it.

US National Debt Tracker for March 22, 2024: See in real time how much American taxpayers (you) owe

Republican opponents were furious as the bill passed Congress, saying it would do little to address the $34 trillion national debt, fund Biden policies they oppose, and defund the Department of Homeland Security. They argued that the bill did not include border security enforcement measures that Republican lawmakers had called for. safety.

The final vote follows a long-standing Republican “rule” named after former House Speaker Dennis Hastert that says Republican leaders should only allow votes on bills that receive a “majority” of support. Violated the starting rules. In other words, only if a majority of Republicans support it.

The results reflected deep divisions within the House Republican conference, with many Republicans expressing dissatisfaction with leadership, which released a 1,012-page policy proposal just 48 hours before lawmakers voted on it.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on Thursday called former Trump White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon’s comments “a complete lack of backbone, a complete lack of leadership, and a complete failure of Republican leadership.” There is no other way to explain it.” “War Room”. “This bill is an abomination.”

After brief partial government shutdown, Senate passes massive $1.2 trillion spending package

Senators voted in favor of passing a package of funding bills to complete the 2024 spending process and avoid a government shutdown. (Reuters/Amanda Andrade Rose)

Senate Republicans who opposed the bill made similar complaints, with Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) telling Fox News Digital that it was “a complete absurdity and insult to what is a proper legislative process.” “This is an outrageous proposal,” he said.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), in a post on did.

Republican advocate Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has accused House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) of betrayal, going so far as to introduce a motion to remove him from leadership. . Other Republicans, including Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), said firing Johnson was a “mistake” and insisted the chairman “did his best” with a one-seat majority.

As Republicans in Washington battle each other, President Trump has yet to offer a clear vision for how he will address this spending crisis if he regains the White House in 2024.

House passes $1.2 trillion government spending bill to avoid government shutdown

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) was the most vocal opponent of the $1.2 trillion spending bill among House Republicans, calling it an “abhorrent act.”

During his campaign, the presumptive Republican nominee has argued that ousting Biden would pay off the nation’s debt. But between 2017 and 2020, when Trump was president, laws and executive orders he signed created an estimated $8.4 trillion in national debt, including interest, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB). It is said that there has been an increase in

In fact, President Trump was responsible for signing a multi-trillion dollar omnibus spending bill even before the coronavirus pandemic. Excluding coronavirus relief, President Trump added $4.8 trillion to the debt during his four years in office, according to CRFB estimates.

During his first two years in office, when the House and Senate were in Republican control, President Trump tried to cut federal spending by about $15 billion, unsuccessfully demanding a repeal from Congress. The effort narrowly passed the House and was defeated in the Senate by Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Richard Burr (R-Maine). He sided with Democrats on the procedural vote to repeal it.

In 2018, faced with a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill, President Trump reversed his veto threat and reluctantly signed the bill because it would provide needed funding for the military.

Biden says $1.2 trillion in spending is ‘good news for Americans’ but Congress’ work is not done

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) released the text of the $1.2 trillion “minibus” bill just 48 hours before lawmakers were asked to vote on it, raising concerns about how Republicans negotiated it. It has been criticized by hard-liners. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)

“I want to say to Congress: I will never sign a bill like this again,” President Trump said after signing the bill.

The very next year, President Trump signed a $1.4 trillion spending package to avoid a partial government shutdown. He signed it again in December 2020 as one of his final acts as president, signing a massive $1.4 trillion omnibus that included $900 billion in COVID-19 aid. .

But while Trump failed to keep his promise to rein in federal spending during his first term, Biden is on track to surpass Trump’s debt accumulation by the end of this year. Biden increased the national debt by $6.75 trillion in his first three years as president, according to Treasury data. The Congressional Budget Office projects a $1.58 trillion deficit in Biden’s final year, totaling $8.3 trillion by the end of Biden’s first term.

These estimates were made before Biden signed a new $1.2 trillion spending package on Saturday.

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Biden’s fiscal year 2025 budget calls for a $3.3 trillion net deficit reduction, but the revenue needed to reach that goal will come primarily from tax increases. Biden has promised not to raise taxes on people making less than $400,000 a year, but otherwise calls for reversing President Trump’s tax cuts and imposing additional taxes on corporations and the wealthy.

President Trump has been pushing for new tax cuts, arguing that the economic growth they would stimulate would offset the loss in government revenue. But he still has to ask voters how he intends to cut spending and how he will work with Congress to break the cycle of last-minute omnibus spending bills that characterized his first term. has not been made clear.