White House Director of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney said Tuesday that the administration’s request for additional cuts to congressional spending should be bipartisan after Democrats pushed for higher spending in the original deal.
“Keep in mind why we’re at $1.3 [trillion]. I’ve talked about this before. It was the extortion payment that we had to get — we had to pay — to defend the nation,” Mr. Mulvaney said on Fox News.
“Every time we asked for an additional dollar for defense, the Democrats said fine, we have to give you that, but we want this non-defense spending over here. That’s how that number got as large as it was,” he added.
He said the administration plans to ask Congress to cut up to $15 billion of spending, a process called “rescission,” but the cuts will likely be made from past unused spending, rather than from the latest agreement. The cuts include $4.3 billion in a vehicle technology program and $200 million set aside for the Ebola outbreak a few years ago.
“They used to be almost entirely bipartisan. Chuck Schumer has voted for these types of things before,” Mr. Mulvaney said.
Congress has 45 days to bring act after the White House submits the request. This is the first rescission package sent to Congress in nearly 20 years.
— Stephen Dinan contributed to this report.
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
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