Trump and his aides take hard line on border wall, as threat of government shutdown looms

Mulvaney has said that the administration is willing to negotiate with Democrats — funding insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in exchange for support for wall funding.

.. “The White House gambit to hold hostage health care for millions of Americans, in order to force American taxpayers to foot the bill for a wall that the President said would be paid for by Mexico is a complete non-starter,”

.. Further complicating matters for the White House, some Republicans in Congress say they don’t view wall funding as a must-have item in a short term spending bill.

.. Meanwhile, the Trump administration plans to release a very general sketch of its tax reform plan this week, Mulvaney said.

“I think what are you going to see Wednesday is some specific governing principles, some guidance,” he said, explaining that the White House will not release specific legislative text. “Also some indications of what the rates are going to be.”

Asked whether the plan will be revenue-neutral, Mulvaney replied, “I don’t think we’ve decided that part yet.”

Trump wants to add wall spending to stopgap budget bill, potentially forcing shutdown showdown

Mick Mulvaney, calls for $33 billion in new defense and border spending — and $18 billion in cuts to other priorities, such as medical research and jobs programs.

.. But it appeared that few on the Hill shared the White House’s appetite to flirt with a government shutdown over the border wall, which Democrats have pledged to oppose and which even some conservative Republicans object to on fiscal grounds.

.. cuts intended to offset the defense spending, including more than $7 billion from labor, health and education programs. Many of the cuts would be aimed at key priorities for Democrats, such as money for global reproductive health education, but they also take aim at more broadly popular agencies including the National Institutes of Health and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

.. Democrats also scoffed at the idea that the White House would ask Congress to cut widely supported domestic programs to pay for the wall despite Trump’s campaign pledge to make Mexico pay.

“Cutting cancer research, slashing affordable housing and programs to protect the environment, and making middle-class taxpayers pay for a wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for?”

.. It is common for White House budget officials to send Congress a list of proposed cuts to offset new spending priorities. But rarely do the cuts target popular programs such as medical research at the National Institutes of Health in exchange.

White House moves to tweak health care bill to win over conservatives

White House budget director Mick Mulvaney is working with Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the hard-line conservative coalition, to strike Obamacare’s lengthy list of essential benefits that health plans now have to cover, according to a senior administration official.

Some Republicans have long argued that insurers should be able to sell skimpier coverage that, for example, wouldn’t cover maternity or mental health services.

Treasury Will Invoke ‘Extraordinary Measures’ as Debt Ceiling Looms Again

Cash-management steps will allow Treasury to pay bills until Congress raises borrowing limit

Analysts expect those cash-management steps will allow the Treasury to pay bills that come due without issuing new debt until this fall, depending on the strength of Treasury receipts this spring and summer. After that, Congress would need to raise the borrowing limit or risk the U.S. missing certain payments.

.. One such staunch critic of approving debt-limit increases with no strings attached, former Rep. Mick Mulvaney, is now President Donald Trump’s budget director.

.. Rep. David Brat (R., Va.), a deficit hawk, said firm commitments from the Trump administration to boost growth could help get conservatives on board with a vote to raise the debt limit.
.. Policy makers on both sides of the aisle have increasingly viewed the debt limit as poor policy.“I would like to see everyone agree that the current debt-limit law is simply a failure. It doesn’t limit debt,” said David Malpass, who served as an economic adviser to Mr. Trump during the campaign