Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, KY) has torpedoed President Donald Trump’s plan to cut $60 billion in federal spending, despite a promise to open a “discussion” on the cuts.
Even after supporting and passing a $1.3 trillion increase in spending, McConnell said he would talk about a rescissions package that had the support of the president. However, McConnell has ultimately refused to support the plan, Conservative Review noted.
McConnell appeared on Fox News with host Neil Cavuto on April 17 and as the interview ended, the Sen. insisted that he could not make such an agreement to rescind any of the massive spending he supported during the budgeting process.
Cavuto noted that President Trump expressed shock that his cuts in spending were not added to the bill and said he would never sign such a bill again. The Fox host then asked if McConnell would try to rescind any of that spending.
But the majority leader said that he already brokered an agreement with the Democrats and that train has left the station. “You can’t make an agreement one month and say, ‘OK, we really didn’t mean it,'” McConnell said of a move to cut spending.
McConnell also took pains to remind Cavuto that Trump supported his spending bill and signed it into law. “He and his people were involved in the negotiations, they agreed to it, and he signed the bill.”
“We had an agreement with the Democrats,” the Kentuckian added.
The majority leader and his supporters maintained that the spending bill was a must pass because it contained the much-needed budget for the military. But as CR’s Chris Pandolfo noted, that excuse does not factor into any move to rescind some of the budgeted spending because the military budget is now already set in motion.
Perhaps the main reason why a bill to realize Trump’s spending cuts will not advance in the U.S. Senate is because Mitch McConnell does not want to support spending cuts, Pandolfo said.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.