GOP Senate Budget Committee chairman says he's ignoring Trump's $4.8 trillion budget

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published 11 February 2020

The White House rolled out President Trump's $4.8 trillion budget blueprint on Monday, mixing hikes in military and border spending with sharp cuts to almost every domestic program in a quixotic or cynical nod toward eventual fiscal rectitude. Nobody expected Congress to embrace all of Trump's ideas, but Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) said Monday he plans to ignore all of it.

In speech on the Senate floor, Enzi encouraged people "not to waste any time searching out the president's budget cuts. Nobody has listened to the president in the 23 years that I've been here. Congress doesn't pay attention to the president's budget exercise. I don't know why we put him through that." He said he wouldn't hold any hearings on Trump's budget, noting he similarly ignored former President Barack Obama's final budget blueprint.

"Congress doesn't pay any attention to the president's budget exercise," Enzi said, according to The Hill. "It's all it is — an exercise. Congress holds the purse strings, according to the Constitution, and Congress is very protective of that constitutional authority."

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The Senate Finance Committee is hearing budget testimony from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar this week, however, and White House and congressional budget officials will also testify before the House on Trump's budget proposals. "If you want the animosity of a budget hearing," go watch the House hearings, Enzi suggested. "You can take that in and get your dose of animosity if you want."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.