Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told the Daily Caller News Foundation Thursday that she was “not confident” that Senate Republicans will ultimately deliver $1.5 trillion in savings as part of their upcoming budget package.
The House of Representatives voted Thursday largely along party lines to pass a resolution setting up the budget blueprint to enact key parts of President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda. However, Murkowski expressed doubt that the GOP would follow through on the cuts in what Trump has called his “one big, beautiful bill.”
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House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune made verbal commitments Thursday to secure at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts in a forthcoming bill. House and Senate GOP leadership agree on the necessity of achieving substantial spending reform in the budget bill, but the respective chambers have still not found consensus on which programs to trim.
Republican Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee told reporters Thursday that he would back the resolution to initiate the budget reconciliation process because Thune “went on record” about ensuring substantial spending reform in an upcoming bill.
“We have got to do something to get the country on a more sustainable fiscal path, and that entails us taking a hard scrub of our government, figuring out where we can find those savings,” Thune said Thursday at a joint press conference with Johnson. “Our ambition in the Senate is we are aligned with the House in terms of what their budget resolution outlined, in terms of savings when the Speaker talked about $1.5 trillion.”
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“Our first big, beautiful reconciliation package here involves a number of commitments, and one of those is that we are committed to finding at least $1.5 trillion in savings for the American people while also preserving our essential programs,” Johnson said Thursday morning at the press conference. “It’s very important for us to note that we’ll be looking for 1.5 trillion in savings, and I can tell you that many of us are going to aim much higher and find those savings because we believe they are there.”
Murkowski opposed Trump’s nomination of Pete Hegseth to serve as Defense secretary and his pardons of Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol rioters. She also joined with Senate Democrats and three other Republican senators on April 3 to terminate the president’s national emergency declaration underpinning his tariffs on Canada.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
