The president’s budget no longer plays much of a practical role in the federal spending process, but all sides are still looking forward to Monday’s release of his 2020 blueprint as an important political statement.
Mr. Trump is more than a month behind the deadline, with the government shutdown having skewed the schedule. And Monday’s release is just a first draft, with the detailed volumes still to come a week later.
It will give Congress a sense for his overall trajectory on spending and taxes, though given how little weight his past two budgets carried — or indeed those of the Obama administration — some lawmakers squinted to find the relevance in the annual exercise.
“Well, I guess I could say that it’s part of the tradition of the country and the Congress, so to that extent it’s worthwhile,” said House Budget Committee Chairman John A. Yarmuth, Kentucky Democrat. “In terms of its ultimate impact, it doesn’t have much relevance.”
The request is set to include at least $8.6 billion in new money for U.S.-Mexico border wall construction — a request top Democrats said Sunday that Congress will reject.
The budget is projected to balance over 15 years in the president’s plan, which assumes the economy will grow by an average of about 3 percent over the next decade, according to a senior administration official.
The president’s budget is part of the 1974 Budget Act, which modernized how Congress spends taxpayers’ money.
The White House submits its plan, spanning thousands of pages and charts, for where nearly every dollar could be spent. Then Congress runs it through the wringer, the House and Senate work on their own budgets, and eventually Congress writes the spending bills that actually dole out the money.
Increasingly there’s a major disconnect between the beginning and the end of that process.
“I’ve said for a couple of decades now that the president’s budget is a list of suggestions. Congress is in charge of budgeting,” said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike B. Enzi, Wyoming Republican.
Mr. Enzi said the volumes of data the Government Publishing Office will churn out on budget day — once a major event for newspapers, lobbyists and lawmakers — are overkill at this point.
“A letter of suggestions would be more helpful — and more read,” he said.
But Democrats say that if nothing else, Mr. Trump’s budget will offer them a useful contrast as he gears up for re-election in 2020 and both parties jockey to defend their respective majorities in the House and Senate.
“I think it’s an indication of the priorities and the values of the president, and from our perspective that’s a great contrast. We’d love to run based on that,” Mr. Yarmuth said.
Past Trump blueprints called for tax cuts, repeal of Obamacare, a boost in defense money and deep domestic spending cuts. He’s gotten tax cuts and the military spending increases, but failed to repeal Obamacare and has seen Congress roundly reject his moves to slash domestic spending.
The last two years Mr. Trump accepted a deal: He got his military spending increases, but had to accept nearly commensurate domestic spending increases.
The White House is aiming to break that equivalency this year.
The budget request is set to cut domestic discretionary spending by about 5 percent and increase money for the military to $750 billion, about $174 billion of which would come from a special overseas war fund that doesn’t count against budget caps.
GOP lawmakers say they’re prepared to back the president up, even if it does rely on the war-funding gimmick.
“Defense is a priority that can’t just be a number pulled out of the air. It has to be based on [what] the threats are,” said Rep. Chris Stewart, Utah Republican. “And if we can do that without at the same time plussing-up everything else, then that’s something I would support.”
Rep. James P. McGovern, Massachusetts Democrat, said the president’s plan is unlikely to get much traction on Capitol Hill.
“I don’t think the majority of the people in this country are as callous as the president,” he said. “I think they want a [leader] with a conscience, and the one thing he has demonstrated over and over again is he doesn’t have one.”
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said presidents’ budgets have outlived their time.
“I’m sure it’s useless,” the Rhode Island Democrat said of Mr. Trump’s upcoming plan. “That’s not just a slap at the Trump administration, although his budgets are completely, unfathomably bad even when the Obama White House did this, [we’d] vote unanimously against them.”
Mr. Yarmuth and Mr. Enzi are already in the process of crafting their own respective 2020 budget plans. But it seems unlikely the House and Senate will settle on a final agreement, given the acrimony of the newly divided Congress.
“Miracles happen, I guess,” Mr. Yarmuth said.
Practically speaking, lawmakers appear to be more focused on striking another deal to lift the discretionary spending caps Congress has lived under, and worked around, dating back to a 2011 law.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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