Trump wants $15B in budget rescinded

CHIP, Obamacare accounts targeted for requested cuts.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is sending a plan to Congress that calls for stripping back more than $15 billion in previously approved spending, with the hope that it will temper conservative angst over ballooning budget deficits.

Almost half of the proposed cuts would come from two accounts within the Children’s Health Insurance Program that White House officials said either expired last year or aren’t expected to be drawn upon.

Another $800 million in cuts would come from money created by the Affordable Care Act in 2010 to test innovative payment and service delivery models.

Those are just a handful of the more than 30 programs the White House is proposing to Congress for “rescission,” a process of culling back money that was previously authorized. Once the White House sends the request to Congress, lawmakers have 45 days to vote on the plan or a scaled-back version of it through a simple majority vote.

If approved by Congress, the reductions would represent less than 0.4 percent of total government spending this year.

A senior administration official said Democrats should recognize that much of this package represents untapped accounts, and that cutting the money would create savings without affecting operations.

But Democrats have said they are watching the process with skepticism. Many Democrats have called for expanding programs like CHIP, not cutting them, and they are often fiercely protective of anything related to the Affordable Care Act.

White House officials and GOP leaders believe this package of proposed cuts could begin to signal to conservatives that they are now taking steps to reverse a free-spending fiscal approach they embraced since Trump took office.

Conservatives erupted in March after Trump signed a $1.3 trillion spending package that included a number of budget requests from Democrats, and pushed for a “rescission” package to pare it back by $30 to $60 billion.

But Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and others argued that would amount to going back on a bipartisan deal. The spending bill would not be touched in the package the White House plans to send to Congress this week. Instead, the White House plans to follow up with another request for close to $10 billion in additional spending cuts later this year that would target some of that money.

The budget strategy for both parties is uncertain heading into the November midterm elections.

Republicans must agree to a new spending deal with Democrats by Sept. 30 or it will trigger a government shutdown, something Trump said last week he would embrace if he doesn’t get additional money to build a wall on the Mexico border.

Congress can “rescind” money it has previously authorized if it secures a majority of votes in the House and then the Senate, using powers under the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Act of 1974.