Deal-maker Donald Trump pushes through budget bill
President Donald Trump knows how to dance — which takes three in Washington, D.C.: the House, the Senate and him.
Republicans have a majority in both houses of Congress. But budgets usually need 60 votes to pass the Senate. The 49 Senate Democrats could have killed the bill. Quite the opposite. In a display of unusual bipartisan support, Minority Leader Charles Schumer sang its praises on the floor of the Senate. After the Senate passed the measure 71-28, the bill passed 240-186 in the House.
The bill costs $560 billion, with about half going to the military and half to domestic spending. The bill also suspends the national debt ceiling for a year and extends billions of dollars of expiring tax breaks. All told, about $1 trillion with the debt-service costs (including the deficits for all prior years under GOP and Democrat presidents). The president signed the deal.
In comparison, the 2009 fiscal stimulus bill which passed under President Barack Obama (with both Houses in Democrat control) cost $800-plus billion over 10 years, not counting the estimated $200 billion for the debt service on the stimulus bill alone.
This new budget takes us until the end of March 2018, when President Trump will have to do his dance again. Which he appears to enjoy as much as he does playing golf.
