Washington Wednesday: Funding the President’s agenda

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 19th of February.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Time now for Washington Wednesday.

The House of Representatives is in recess this week…but before leaving town, members of Congress got one step closer to passing a budget. Last week, the House budget committee approved a spending blueprint.

Washington Bureau reporter Leo Briceno has the story.

ARRINGTON: The ayes have it, and the motion is agreed to. The concurrent resolution of the budget for fiscal year 2025 is ordered favorably reported to the House of Representatives.

LEO BRICENO: Passing a budget out of committee might not sound like headline news. But it’s a critical first step that blueprints how Congress will pursue fiscal responsibility while implementing Trump’s domestic policy agenda.

CURRY: You have agreement that we’re going to have this much in cuts from these places. That this is an agreement that people can at least in principle get behind.

That’s Jim Curry, professor of political science at the University of Utah. He explains that its main purpose is to create a consensus among Republicans on spending.

CURRY: It’s going to set the parameters for what happens here after. Which is why it is dragging on and dragging on. Because they need to find near total unity given that they have a two-seat majority in the House.

In its current form, the budget sets a goal of cutting about $3.5 trillion dollars in spending over the next ten years. That’s a huge number. But Republicans think it’s doable. In particular, they hope to meet that goal by cleaning up government programs like Medicaid. Here’s House Speaker Mike Johnson last week.

JOHNSON: Medicaid is infamous for fraud, waste, and abuse…And so, we do right to go into those programs and find that, and show that and show the people what’s happened and make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

Republicans are not calling for the end of Medicaid, but believe changes as simple as better ID requirements will prevent dollars from going to thieves and ghost accounts.

BURCHETT: How much money do you calculate is wasted due to waste fraud and abuse in the entitlement programs each year?

That’s Tim Burchett of Tennessee in a recent hearing of the House subcommittee for Delivering on Government Efficiency, or DOGE. He’s posing the question to Haywood Talcove, the CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions.

TALCOVE: My number right now—between federal state and local government is you can save one trillion dollars a year by simply putting in front-end identity verification, eliminating self-certification, and monitoring the backend of the programs that are providing the benefits. Those three things.

But cost cutting does not necessarily equal cost savings. The budget outline contains instructions for increasing spending by up to 4 trillion dollars over the next 10 years. That’s to pursue Trump’s many domestic policies—like border security. The bill would also raise the debt ceiling by 4 trillion dollars.

Without spending cuts and a higher debt ceiling, Republicans may find it hard to accomplish another one of Trump’s goals.

CURRY: It will also affect what they can do on taxes right?

CURRY: If they’re going to link these things together, which is what House Republicans want to do, then the instructions to the other committees in terms of what to find in terms of cuts will determine how much leeway the tax writers have to write a bill.

The Trump administration wants to cut taxes—just like it did in its first term through the Tax Cuts and Job Act of 2017. But fiscal hawks are worried that cutting taxes will decrease the amount of revenue the government has to work with. If tax revenue goes down at the same time spending on things like border security goes up, Republicans like Ralph Norman of South Carolina believe voters who expect cost-cutting will be frustrated.

Norman wants a guarantee that the cuts will happen before he supports any spending package.

NORMAN: What happens if some committees in the resolutions do not fulfill their promises. Just some what ifs. As long as we get some assurances on that. We’ve got one shot at this thing.

It only takes two dissenting votes to sink the whole plan. And that’s happened before.

In 2017, the Senate voted on a reconciliation package aimed at repealing Obamacare. It was on pace to narrowly succeed…until the late Arizona Senator John McCain voted against it.

AUDIO: [Gasping and clapping]

That one thumbs down sank the plan.

This time, Republicans seem to be off to a good start to avoid a similar outcome. Andy Harris is the Chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of the most fiscally conservative members in the House of Representatives. Here’s Harris standing right outside the House chamber, speaking with reporters during a vote series last Thursday.

HARRIS: We declare victory. We have a bill that we believed that it had to be done rapidly…

Harris goes on to say the bill gives President Trump funding for border security, reduces deficit spending, and advances the president’s tax policies.

For now, the fiscal hawks have not countered the plan. Even so, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson isn’t taking any chances. He has one other key way to keep party unity: throwing away the possibility of a plan B.

PINCIN: Speaker Johnson wants to have one bill, what President Trump calls ‘one big beautiful bill’ and the Senate is willing to split this out into two’

That’s Jared Pincin, associate professor of economics at Cedarville University. He explains that Johnson is trying to force party unity by pinning the vast majority of Trump’s agenda to one single bill.

PINCIN: The House is such a key player here because the Senate would like to put forward spending on the budget, defense, certain things first and then deal with the tax stuff later.

The Senate is also working on its own version, with a two-bill solution. Here’s Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the main proponents of a two-bill method.

LINDSEY GRAHAM: To my Republican colleagues in the House, I’m pulling for one big, beautiful bill but there’s a sense of urgency. I hope you will consider what we do if you cannot produce the one big beautiful bill quickly.

Graham argues Republicans should split the more pressing priorities now and then work on other parts of the Trump agenda later. His approach could also provide backup if the House fails to deliver on its front. The Senate budget committee advanced that plan last Wednesday—just in case.

GRAHAM: The Committee’s adjourned.

But House leadership believes parceling out the priorities would weaken leverage over skeptical members who would have to get in line for an all-or-nothing bill.

Once lawmakers land a budget plan, the committees that handle spending can get to work.

Rep. Chuck Edwards of North Carolina sits on the Appropriations Committee, the body tasked with shaping legislation on spending.

EDWARDS: We clearly have to roll back spending from the federal budget. We’re on an unsustainable path. There’s never been a time more important or a better opportunity than right now with President Trump in the White House and Republican majorities in the House and the Senate.

But first, the full House needs to confirm the budget resolution after they reconvene next week.

ARRINGTON: That concludes today's business of the House Budget Committee. I want to thank everybody again for their cooperation. God bless America. Let's go reverse the curse.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leo Briceno.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.