Budget fight tests the limits of Trump loyalty in Congress
CNN
GOP Rep. Ryan Zinke is a Donald Trump loyalist.
GOP Rep. Ryan Zinke is a Donald Trump loyalist. Yet even the former Trump Cabinet secretary isn’t currently willing to go along with party leaders’ plans to muscle the president’s deficit-busting agenda through Congress with hardly any attempt to pay for it. Zinke was among multiple Republicans privately raising doubts about the Senate’s budget plan in a tense GOP meeting Tuesday morning, voicing concerns about passing pricey tax cuts with only $4 billion in spending reductions — all while raising the nation’s borrowing limit by another $5 trillion. “The math doesn’t add up,” a frustrated Zinke told fellow Republicans, according to two people in the room. Zinke is not alone, with at least a dozen House Republicans saying they were willing to reject the Senate’s budget plans despite the hard push from Trump himself, who is eager to show tangible progress on his agenda to battered financial markets as his big reciprocal tariffs take effect. Their collision is the latest reminder that some Republicans on Capitol Hill who consider themselves “true believers” on fiscal conservatism are still adjusting to following a president who has never made battling the deficit a top priority.
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