Heritage Foundation opposes Trump’s budget deal as ‘fiscally egregious’

The conservative group Heritage Action said Wednesday it opposes the two-year budget deal that the White House has reached with congressional leaders, and will include it as a “key vote” on the group’s legislative scorecard.

The agreement, which would raise spending by $322 billion and suspend the nation’s debt limit for two years, “would be the most fiscally egregious deal in recent years and would create annual deficits on par with President Obama’s,” the group said.

The House is expected to vote on the $1.37 trillion proposal on Thursday before lawmakers leave Washington for their month-long August recess. The Senate would take up the measure next week.

Heritage noted that President Trump “nearly vetoed” a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill in 2018, promising taxpayers that he “will never sign another bill like this again.”

“The deal under consideration this week will increase the ten-year spending baseline by $1.7 trillion to $2 trillion, increase debt to 97 percent of GDP by 2029, and pave the way for another trillion dollar plus omnibus spending deal this fall,” Heritage said.

Paul Winfree, director of Heritage’s Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies, called the budget deal “the worst in a decade” and said if Mr. Trump signs it into law, “his fiscal legacy will be no different than the Obama and Bush administrations that he has criticized.”

The president and his advisers argue that the agreement gives another big boost for the military, and that it will prevent House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from blocking Mr. Trump’s agenda through the 2020 election.

The House Freedom Caucus, a group of about 30 conservative lawmakers, also came out against the budget deal Tuesday night. But their opposition alone is not believed to be enough to stop the spending bill; Republican and Democratic leaders in the House are urging their members to support the budget agreement.

Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, said Wednesday he will vote for the spending bill, saying it will help the Defense Department “recover from the depressed military readiness rates of the previous administration.”

Mr. Cornyn also noted that the measure continues to prevent federal tax money from being spent on abortion. And he said the “tough deal” negotiated by Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin will prevent Democrats from using so-called “riders” to try to “implement elements of the Green New Deal to undo the president’s regulatory reforms or to rewrite our immigration laws through the back door.”

“This agreement prevents our Democratic colleagues from trying to block President Trump from using funds to strengthen border security,” he said. “No bipartisan agreement is ever perfect. That’s the definition of a negotiation.”