Democrats see the budget resolution as the opening salvo in Republican plans, spelled out in the conservative Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” manifesto, to drastically rein in the federal bureaucracy.
It will trigger a devastating downsizing of essential services, critics warn, compounding anger over the campaign by Trump’s tech billionaire advisor Elon Musk to slash federal agencies.
The budget resolution raises the country’s borrowing limit by US$5 trillion to cover a renewal of Trump’s expiring tax relief through 2034, which is expected to add at least the same amount to the country’s debt.
‘Massive tax breaks’
The budget blueprint, which narrowly passed the House after getting the green light Saturday in the Senate, sets targets for overall spending and mandates US$4 billion in cuts.
But Republican leaders are eyeing much more ambitious savings of US$1.5 trillion, including US$880 billion that opponents say would have to come mostly from the Medicaid health care program for low-income families.
Democrats argue that Trump’s first-term tax giveaway disproportionately benefited wealthy individuals and corporations, and extending them would compound inequality.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries blasted Republicans for what he called “the largest Medicaid cut in American history in order to pass massive tax breaks for your billionaire donors like Elon Musk.”
