The agreement appeared likely to mark a retreat for White House officials who had demanded major spending cuts in exchange for a new budget deal. But instead of the $150 billion in new spending cuts recently demanded by White House acting budget director Russell Vought, the agreement would include a significantly lower amount of reductions. And those reductions aren’t expected to represent actual spending cuts, in part because most would take place in future years and likely be reversed by Congress at a later date. Democrats have fought to limit or eliminate the White House’s ability to transfer money in this way, but White House officials have pushed hard to retain the flexibility to do so. A central focus of the budget agreement would be the suspension of the debt ceiling for two years, forestalling what many budget experts believe would be a catastrophic default.

Source: Washington Post July 22, 2019 02:34 UTC