White House’s Russ Vought addresses criticism of Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ with Glenn Beck

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought joined “The Glenn Beck Program” on Friday morning to discuss President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” with Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck.

Trump’s budget bill proposes reducing non-defense discretionary spending by $163 billion, which the White House has stated will “gut[] a weaponized deep state while providing historic increases for defense and border security.” The budget would increase defense spending by 13% and Department of Homeland Security appropriations by 65%.

‘We are living in a world where we don’t have the ability to have unlimited tax cuts.’

“We’re working through,” Vought told Beck, noting that the House had “basically passed” a budget with $1.5 trillion in savings and $4.5 trillion in tax relief.

“We’re right there with them, trying to get it done,” he continued. “I think it would be a big savings. We could go north of that.”

Vought stated that the administration aims to seize the “historic opportunity” to extend tax cuts and ensure the “highest reforms to mandatory spending since the 1990s.”

He hopes the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the House Committee on Ways and Means will pass the proposed budget next week.

Beck noted that the nation’s interest-rate debt is more considerable than the defense budget.

Vought replied, “We have $36 trillion in debt,” adding that the country is paying roughly $1.1 trillion per year in interest costs.

On Wednesday, Trump stated that the administration was “making great progress on ‘The One, Big, Beautiful Bill.'”

“Our Economy is doing well, but it’s going to BOOM in a way never seen before. We are going to do NO TAX ON TIPS, NO TAX ON SENIORS’ SOCIAL SECURITY, NO TAX ON OVERTIME, and much more. It will be the biggest Tax Cut for Middle and Working Class Americans by far, and it is time for Main Street to WIN,” he wrote in a post on social media.

In a separate post on Friday, he addressed the “TINY” proposed tax increases on the wealthy.

“The problem with even a ‘TINY’ tax increase for the RICH, which I and all others would graciously accept in order to help the lower and middle income workers, is that the Radical Left Democrat Lunatics would go around screaming, ‘Read my lips,’ the fabled Quote by George Bush the Elder that is said to have cost him the Election. NO, Ross Perot cost him the Election! In any event, Republicans should probably not do it, but I’m OK if they do!!!” he stated.

Beck questioned Vought about Trump’s statements concerning raising taxes on the rich, calling it “a little scary.”

“We should be going the other way. Shouldn’t we?” he asked.

Vought replied, “I think the president ran on a set of tax proposals that he’s been very excited about … designed towards the working class that we, from an economic standpoint, also believe are really critical to getting more and more of labor force participation out of this part of the economy.”

“We are living in a world where we don’t have the ability to have unlimited tax cuts,” he said.

Beck asked Vought whether going back to the 2019 budget would be a feasible option.

“Why can’t we just reset and say, ‘We’re going back to that budget?'” he asked.

“We’re trying to do that with the budget that you saw, that we sent out,” Vought responded. “This is essentially what that budget represents. It’s an effort to go back — non-adjusted for inflation — it goes back to 2017.”

“It’s the 35% cut for most programs when we account for maintaining infrastructure and veteran spending,” he added.

Vought told Beck that he is optimistic that the administration will secure “the largest mandatory savings ever, or adjusted for inflation, since the 1997 balance budget agreement.”

He is also confident the administration will achieve a “much smaller bureaucracy.”

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