Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn and Sen. John Thune, chairman of the Senate Republican conference, have all come out in opposition to the Ryan-Murray budget deal.
While all three senate GOP leaders have expressed their skepticism to the Budget Control Act, only McConnell has said for certain that he will
vote against it.
Urgent: Do You Approve Or Disapprove of President Obama's Job Performance? Vote Now in Urgent Poll
According to The Wall Street Journal, the Kentucky senator met with House Republicans in November and told them not to compromise on across the board spending cuts that began under the budget sequester earlier this year.
Cornyn and Thune have both said they are skeptical of the budget proposal that has been put together by House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan and Senate Budget Committee chairwoman Sen. Patty Murray, also saying that they want the budget caps that were part of the sequester retained, while offering some "flexibility" to the Pentagon,
Breitbart reported.
"I am concerned about the budget proposal because it breaks the spending caps that were a part of the Budget Control Act, which is one of the main reasons why federal spending has actually gone down this year and last year as opposed to having a straight upward trajectory," said Cornyn during a conference call with reporters Wednesday.
"All along, there was some discussion about providing flexibility to the Department of Defense to allow them to spend the money more efficiently and effectively," the Texas senator explained. "But the tradeoff was going to be to deal with entitlement reform and to shore up Medicare and Social Security. So I'm wondering where the beef is."
Cornyn added that the deal increases airplane fees and that raises revenues, "but it's for more spending" which is "heading in the wrong direction."
"I think one of the things, the most important things, to do here in Washington is to rein in wasteful spending and to reform important safety net programs like Medicare and Social Security and this does none of that," the Texas Republican said.
"As you can tell I'm skeptical," he concluded.
Thune had similar thoughts on the budget deal in a statement sent to Breitbart.
"I have serious concerns about any agreement that breaks the budget caps set by the Budget Control Act without making meaningful spending reforms that address our debt and deficit," the South Dakota senator said. "Irresponsible Washington spending and kicking the can down the road got us into this mess in the first place and have a responsibility to address the crisis."
Urgent: Do You Approve Or Disapprove of President Obama's Job Performance? Vote Now in Urgent Poll
Related Stories:
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.