Budget delayed this week as Johnson seeks to soothe spending hawks

Despite meeting over the weekend to reconcile differences among members, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said the budget will be delayed as the GOP checks “boxes” on the package.

Johnson said he hoped the House Budget Committee would do a “markup” of the bill next week.

A “markup” is a formal process by which committee members debate and make changes to a bill.

Johnson is still trying to figure out how to include all of Trump’s legislative agenda in the budget, while also attacking the annual budget deficit. 

Speaking on Fox News Sunday from the Super Dome in New Orleans in his home state of Louisiana prior to the Super Bowl, Johnson said the process of reconciling all the House Republicans’ views on the budget is lengthy. 

He told Fox he’s hoping that the budget will fit with extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts, cut waste fraud and abuse, ensure American energy dominance and secure the border. 

“Remember that I have the smallest margin in history, about a two-vote margin currently, so I’ve got to make sure everyone agrees before we bring the project forward, that final product,” Johnson told Shannon Bream on Fox. “And we’ve got a few more boxes to check, but we’re getting very, very close.” 

Johnson understands that with such a slim majority, he has to listen to every member. 

Johnson watched the Super Bowl with President Trump from the private box suite of New Orleans Saints owner Gayle Benson, according to USA Today. 

In addition, Johnson was joined in the suite by Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Eric Schmitt of Missouri, Tim Scott of South Carolina, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and Trump National Security Advisor Michael Waltz. 

The difficulty Johnson has is in finding cuts to the federal budget to offset tax cuts and new spending, so that the budget doesn’t add to the $36.22 trillion in federal debt outstanding.  

Under the current budget, the deficit is increasing by $711 billion annually.   

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said recently that extending the first Trump tax breaks from 2017, cutting taxes on tips, overtime pay and Social Security and expanding state and local deductions, as Trump has proposed, would reduce taxes between $5 trillion to $11 trillion over 10 years. 

At the same time, a group of fiscal conservatives in the House known as the Republican Study Committee (RSC) said that a process known as “reconciliation,” where spending is cut to offset reductions in taxes, must be used to address the budget deficit. 

Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, who is a member of the Freedom Caucus and the RSC, said the budget needs to come up with $250 billion annually in spending cuts, or $2.5 trillion over 10 years, to get the Trump tax cuts done.  

Some Republican members have proposed $100 billion in annual cuts, which Roy has said is not enough in a $7 trillion annual budget. 

“What we’re talking about is $100 billion a year in a $7 trillion top line spending when we’re bleeding out a trillion dollars in interest every year,” Roy told reporters. “So, if you want to get and achieve what we want to achieve on tax policy, for growth, which I support, you got to have [more] spending restraint.” 

He thinks a $250 billion reduction is a good start on restraint.    

Roy said he “loved” the savings that might be gained through Elon Musk’s efforts with DOGE, especially on USAID and the Department of Education, but he’s not sure yet how it will work out in reality. 

“Those cuts are great. But then we got to see what those turn into in practice, right?” Roy told reporters. “We got to see what happens with savings, how much it is in the aggregate.” 

Senate Republicans have released a 61-page budget version of Trump’s legislative agenda that would require two separate bills and has the added benefit of not needing the 60 votes typically required to avoid a filibuster. 

Currently, the GOP only has 53 votes in the Senate.  

“This budget resolution jumpstarts a process that will give President Trump’s team the money they need to secure the border and deport criminals, and make America strong and more energy independent,” said Graham in a statement about the resolution.  

But the tables presented with Graham’s budget show the annual deficit increasing each year, accumulating another $10 trillion through 2034. 

The resolution also doesn’t address any tax cuts, but simply assigns top-line spending numbers for each of the departments, without getting into specifics.  

The large differences between House and Senate budget versions and tactics are a measure of how far Republicans have to go to get a bill passed that President Trump will sign.  

“I have about 170 additional personalities to deal with, and he’s only got 53 on the Republican side,” Johnson said of Graham’s budget process. “We have a very diverse caucus with lots of interests, but we are going to get this job done,” Johnson promised.