Wildly unpopular Trump policy forces him to break a 'half-century tradition': DC insider
President Donald Trump spent months aggressively pushing his "big, beautiful bill," telling members of Congress what he wanted the megabill to include, and warning Republican lawmakers that there would be hell to pay if they voted "no." But one thing Trump didn't release in the spring was release a fully detailed federal budget.
In an op-ed published by the New York Times early Saturday morning, August 23, Thomas Khan (acting director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University and ex-staff director of the House Budget Committee) argues that Trump is breaking a half-century-old government tradition in budgetary planning. And he wonders if Trump is doing so because his economic policies are wildly unpopular.
"For the past half-century," Khan explains, "presidents of both parties have, almost without exception, released a comprehensive federal budget proposal to Congress each year. The Trump Administration is poised to break that tradition. In May, months after a full proposal would be typically released, the administration offered what it called a 'skinny budget': an outline of spending priorities that detailed only a small fraction of proposed expenditures. But the administration has declined so far to release a full proposal."
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The former House Budget Committee staff director continues, "Last month, Russell Vought, the head of the Office of Management and Budget, assured a group of reporters that the administration was 'certainly going to release a full budget eventually,” but he also seemed to indicate the opposite when he added that releasing one 'wasn’t in our interest.' He claimed that the administration didn’t want to confuse the American people by releasing a full budget proposal during debate over the 'big, beautiful bill,' Mr. Trump's signature domestic legislation — even though the legislation had passed weeks earlier…. Mr. Trump’s administration submitted a comprehensive budget proposal every year of his first term. So why the secrecy now?"
Vought was a key architect of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation's blueprint for a second Trump Administration. During the 2024 presidential election, Trump made a point of distancing himself from Project 2025 — as it was full of unpopular proposals and his campaign saw it as a political liability for him. But Vought is now in charge of OMB.
Seven months into Trump's second presidency, Khan believes his administration is being secretive about the national budget.
"If the administration's fiscal agenda is as unpopular as its domestic policy law — with further tax cuts for the wealthy and deeper cuts to Medicaid and other popular programs — then hiding it may indeed serve the administration’s interest," Khan argues. "Last month, for example, Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, said that new savings accounts for newborns included in the domestic policy law could be 'a backdoor for privatizing Social Security' — a claim at odds with Mr. Trump's repeated promises to protect the program. Mr. Bessent quickly tried to backtrack, offering assurances that Social Security would not be replaced."
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Khan adds, "This mixed messaging underscores the need for a full budget proposal. If Mr. Trump plans to break his promise to protect Social Security — much as he did with Medicaid, which he slashed despite assurances that he wouldn’t — the American people deserve to know. Failing to release a comprehensive plan only fuels speculation and prevents a necessary policy debate. The skinny budget released in May is deficient."
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Thomas Khan's full New York Times op-ed is available at this link (subscription required).
