Trump Budget Bill Delivers Historic Cuts Despite GOP Fiscal Skepticism

President Trump’s latest budget proposal dubbed by the former president himself as “one big, beautiful bill” is drawing fire from some corners of the conservative movement. But according to Trump’s Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, the package isn’t just sound policy it’s historic.

Appearing on The Ben Shapiro Show, Vought addressed the so-called “heartburn” among fiscal hawks concerned the bill doesn’t go far enough to reduce the nearly $37 trillion national debt. Vought’s message to critics: This is the most meaningful spending reform in decades.

“This is the most historic level of mandatory savings that we’ve had, ever: $1.6 trillion,” Vought said. “We’ve had nothing of consequence since the 1997 Balanced Budget Agreement.”

That 1997 deal under President Bill Clinton and a GOP-led Congress was the last major attempt to curb entitlements through work requirements and spending caps. Trump’s new plan, Vought says, takes that playbook further, applying reforms to welfare programs like Medicaid and ensuring illegal immigrants are removed from the benefits system a move long overdue.

Key wins in the bill include:

• $1.6 trillion in mandatory spending cuts, the largest in modern history.

• Reinstated work requirements for welfare recipients, encouraging a return to the labor force.

• Tightened Medicaid access, preventing illegal immigrants from drawing taxpayer-funded healthcare.

• Extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts, avoiding a stealth tax hike that would hit families and small businesses.

“This bill does sizable things,” Vought emphasized, noting that long-term economic growth depends on unlocking productivity not stifling it with sunset tax provisions and bloated welfare rolls.

Critics, including some in the GOP, argue the plan doesn’t go far enough to address ballooning deficits. But they miss a key point. As Vought explained, you can’t cut spending in a shrinking economy. And the best path to sustained fiscal health starts with preserving pro-growth tax policy and ensuring government benefits don’t disincentivize work.

What many fiscal critics also forget is how Washington works. Much of the federal budget is on autopilot, tied up in “mandatory” programs that rarely face cuts unless Congress steps in with serious reform. This bill crafted with precision does exactly that.

“This town hasn’t even begun to approach these kinds of cuts,” Vought said. “We’re telling a story of real reform not just optics.”

This proposal isn’t about pleasing the headlines. It’s about putting America’s fiscal house back in order while maintaining the engine of prosperity that drove record-low unemployment and explosive job growth under President Trump’s first term.

GOP skeptics may want more, but let’s be clear: this bill is more than any administration has done in decades to slash reckless spending and restore sanity to Washington.

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