Rep. Byron Donalds: Work Begins to Cut '$1.5T in Spending'

The work to draft a reconciliation bill that would cut $1.5 trillion in federal spending begins Monday, Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., announced Sunday.

When asked by "Sunday Morning Futures" about the House's agenda upon its return to Washington, D.C., on Monday, Donalds replied: "The plan needs to be a that the" House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo., Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., "and several others begin the work of crafting their language for reconciliation instructions in budget reconciliation.

"A big hurdle we have in the House, which we're going to have in Congress, is that we're going to have to find a way to cut about $1.5 trillion in spending," the congressman added.

"And the reason why is that we have to begin to control federal spending. It can't be out of control like it's been for too long in Washington D.C. So, this is a golden opportunity, of course, to extend current tax policy, bring the new measures that the president campaigned about like no tax on tips, overtime, and Social Security, but also to get the fiscal health of the nation in order."

Nonetheless, according to Maya MacGuineas, the president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Congress may only be looking at making some of the key tax benefits President Donald Trump promised in his 2024 campaign temporary, which would be a form of "manipulation," not showing the true cost of the budget.

"This ad-hoc, inconsistent, manipulative, and disingenuous approach to budgeting is enough to make your head explode, and it is going to make the debt explode. Congress isn't even pretending to do honest budgeting at this point. The whole argument behind the current policy baseline was that temporary policies should be counted as permanent — and yet here they are trying to count some of them as temporary," MacGuineas said.

"This hypocrisy simply exposes the current policy gimmick for what it is: a blatant attempt to add to the debt and fool the American people. With a national debt rapidly approaching an all-time high, we cannot afford to have our policymakers playing dishonest games with the federal budget."

Donalds later in his interview with host Maria Bartiromo noted he personally does not plan to raise taxes on the "highest earners."

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