President Donald Trump ignored seething Republicans and made good on his deal with Democrats, signing legislation that links $15.3 billion in disaster aid to an increase in the U.S. borrowing limit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The law is a first installment in replenishing depleted federal emergency coffers. Trump signed it Friday as Hurricane Irma approached Florida and as Texas picks up the pieces after the devastation of Harvey. All 90 votes in opposition were cast by Republicans, some of whom hissed and booed administration officials who went to Capitol Hill to defend the package.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Conservative Republicans were upset that Trump cut the disaster-and-debt deal with Democratic leaders with no offsetting budget cuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t just keep borrowing money,\u201d said GOP Rep. Jeff Duncan of South Carolina. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be $22 trillion in debt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The aid measure, which passed the House on a vote of 316-90, was the first injection of emergency money that could rival or exceed the $110 billion federal response after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, though future aid packages may be more difficult to pass. The legislation also finances the government through Dec. 8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a closed-door meeting before the vote, more than a dozen Republicans stood up and complained about Trump cutting a deal with Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi instead of GOP leaders trying to deliver on the president\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Budget chief Mick Mulvaney, a former tea party congressman from South Carolina who took a hard line against debt increases during his House tenure, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin faced a rough time in pleading for votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mnuchin elicited hisses when he told the meeting of House Republicans \u201cvote for the debt ceiling for me,\u201d said Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Republicans were in disbelief after Mnuchin argued that the debt ceiling shouldn\u2019t be a political issue in the future, said Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rep. Ryan Costello, R-Pa., described a surreal scene with Mnuchin, a former Democratic donor, and Mulvaney, who almost certainly would have opposed the very measure he was sent to pitch, pressing Republicans to rally around the legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like \u2018Where am I? What\u2019s going on here?\u2019\u201d Costello said. \u201cIf it wasn\u2019t so serious it kind of would have been funny.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mulvaney was booed when he stepped to the microphone, though lawmakers said it was good-natured. He defended the deal and Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was absolutely the right thing to do,\u201d Mulvaney told reporters after the meeting. \u201cThe president is a results-driven person, and right now he wants to see results on Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma and tax reform. He saw an opportunity to work with Democrats on this particular issue at this particular time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Mulvaney further upset Republicans when he wouldn\u2019t promise spending cuts as part of a future debt limit vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump on Wednesday had cut a deal with Sen. Schumer and Rep. Pelosi to increase the debt limit for three months, rather than the long-term approach preferred by the GOP leaders that would have resolved the issue through next year\u2019s midterms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Conservatives disliked both options. Voting on the debt limit is politically toxic for Republicans, and the deal will make the GOP vote twice before next year\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fiscal conservatives have clamored for deep cuts in spending in exchange for any increase in the government\u2019s borrowing authority. The storm relief measure had widespread support, but the linkage with the debt ceiling left many Republicans frustrated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAre we doing anything on fiscal sanity? No,\u201d said tea party Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va. \u201cAnd so Mick (Mulvaney) came over today, the treasury secretary came over today, and we said, \u2018Do you have a plan for fiscal sanity going forward?\u2019 No. Crickets. So that\u2019s the frustration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Democratic votes are invariably needed to increase the debt limit \u2014 and avert a potential market-quaking default on government obligations \u2014 and Schumer and Pelosi successfully pressed to waive the debt limit through Dec. 8. Democrats are cautious about working with Trump, but hold out hope for legislation on the budget, health care, and shielding young immigrants brought to this country illegally from deportation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moderate GOP Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said he\u2019s been encouraging Trump to find ways to work with Democrats. King attended a meeting in the White House on Thursday with lawmakers when the president asked him \u201chow did I feel the bipartisan deal was going. Did I think it was good?\u201d I said, \u201d\u2018Absolutely, we need more of it.\u2019 I said, \u2018You and Chuck. The two of you in the room. We can make some good deals.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Associated Press writers Richard Lardner and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Donald Trump ignored seething Republicans and made good on his deal with Democrats, signing legislation that links $15.3 billion in disaster aid to an increase in the U.S. borrowing limit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":73896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":65,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[65,78,106,15,33,28],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3099],"class_list":["post-24486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-budget","category-budget-smr","category-daily-brief","category-management","category-newsletters","category-smr"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"XOOOGI5W4BB3JPCHPACAOU67S4","arc_canonical_url":"\/management\/budget\/2017\/09\/09\/trump-sets-emergency-aid-in-motion-in-deal-that-upsets-gop\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n