Trump’s Unilateral Spending Cuts Complicate Shutdown Deal

Long before Republicans and Democrats reached the stalemate that has shut down the government, President Trump made it clear that he was willing to ignore Congress’s constitutional power to allocate federal spending.

His Department of Government Efficiency took a hacksaw to the federal bureaucracy with little consultation and no sign-off by the Republican-controlled Congress. He pushed through legislation to officially claw back billions of dollars lawmakers had appropriated, a rare move that he and his advisers, as well as the House speaker, have promised he will resort to again.

So as the shutdown enters its third week with no resolution in sight, it has become increasingly evident to lawmakers in both parties that one serious obstacle to striking a spending deal to reopen the government is the possibility — maybe even certainty — that Mr. Trump will simply turn around and ignore it, as he has repeatedly ignored Congress’s will on spending this year.

With Mr. Trump and Russell T. Vought, his director of the Office of Management and Budget, promising to pursue more rescissions — deep cuts proposed by the White House in spending already blessed by Congress — Democrats are effectively being asked to sign onto a deal that they know can be unilaterally undone by a defiant president and a compliant Republican majority.

“Does it make it harder to come to terms on hard things like a government shutdown?” Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, asked about the prospect of rescissions. “Absolutely.”

That fundamental lack of trust looms large as members of both parties settle in for what is looking like a long shutdown fight.