Monday, July 22, 2019

Tentative Federal Budget Would Raise Spending by $320 Billion

White House officials and congressional lawmakers are nearing a deal that would boost government spending levels over the next two years and raise the federal borrowing limit.

The agreement would raise spending by $320 billion, compared to the strict spending levels established in the 2011 Budget Control Act and set to go into effect next year without legislative action, according to three people familiar with the negotiations who requested anonymity to discuss the unfinished deal.

Some Republican lawmakers and officials within the administration want to reject any budget that is not fully offset by spending cuts or that does not carry a promise from Democrats that they would drop liberal policy changes from future spending bills.

Mr. Trump criticized the Republican Party in 2013 for agreeing to lift the debt ceiling, and Mr. Mulvaney and his allies in the House used a looming debt default in 2011 to force passage of the Budget Control Act, which set the spending caps that the new deal would once again lift.

The rising costs of an aging population, with the baby boom generation drawing Social Security and Medicare benefits, and Washington's spending habits have led to increases in both federal spending and interest costs on the growing national debt.

During the first two years of the Trump administration, the debt increased by more than $2 trillion, in part because of the 10-year, $1.5 trillion tax cut and large spending increases Mr. Trump signed into law.

The House has passed 10 of the 12 spending bills needed to keep the government open afterward, but that legislation will have to be updated based on funding levels from any budget deal.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/22/us/politics/budget-deal.html

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