Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney received a tongue lashing from Democrats, along with one Republican, when he visited Capitol Hill on Wednesday to defend a White House budget opponents called “a betrayal” to the American people.
“Never before, really, have I seen such a cruel and morally bankrupt budget,” Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Cali., told Mulvaney during his appearance before the House Budget Committee.
Democrats cited cuts to food stamps, the Department of Education, and social welfare programs as “immoral,” as Mulvaney defended the budget proposal as a necessary step to putting the country’s finances on the right path.
“What about the standard of living for my grandchild who aren’t here yet who will end up inheriting $30 trillion in debt? $50 trillion in debt? $100 trillion? Who’s going to pay the bill congressman?...Right now my unborn grandchildren are paying for it. And I think that is morally bankrupt,” the OMB director defended to Lee.
Republicans on the panel mostly agreed the proposal was a tough but essential move, with the notable exception of Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., who said the plan was based on a “Goldilocks economy.”
“It’s not only a myth, it’s frankly a lie,” Mulvaney’s former Palmetto State colleague said.
Related: Trump Team Stands by Budget’s $2 Trillion Math Error
Also on Capitol Hill on Wednesday was Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who attempted to sell President Donald Trump’s budget plan to the House Ways and Means Committee.
Members of both parties have called Trump’s budget “dead on arrival,” which is not uncommon for a president's proposals at this stage of the process. But Democrats have come out particularly harshly against the Trump plan and the controversial cuts to well-known programs are likely to play a role a federal elections between now and next year’s midterms.
“That budget that Trump has presented is a grotesquely immoral budget. It is a horrific budget,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., told NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell in an interview Wednesday.
“It is an outrageous budget. It is a budget that the American people do not want. It’s a budget that should not see the light of day in the U.S. Senate,” he added.
