Congress
House GOP will hear from Wall Street deficit hawk as lawmakers struggle over tax cut costs
Ray Dalio, a billionaire investor who repeatedly has warned about America’s unsustainable debt trajectory, will brief House Republicans on Tuesday morning, at the invitation of Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas).
His appearance comes as Republicans struggle with how to account for the cost of their tax cut plans, with some pushing for an accounting strategy that would zero-out the price tag and others warning that would amount to fiscal fraud.
Just in recent weeks, Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, has said that America’s debt situation could cause an “economic heart attack” and “shocking developments.”
“It is imperative that members of Congress engage with thought leaders like Mr. Dalio, who have extensive, real-world experience that can help guide us as we work to restore fiscal sanity in Washington before it’s too late,” Arrington said ahead of the briefing.
Dalio’s appearance, planned for after the House GOP conference meeting, comes as congressional Republicans are still hashing out some of the big-picture questions on a huge budget package this year, including how much a potential plan might add to deficits.
One particularly large outstanding question is whether Republicans should use a current policy baseline, which would assert that there is no cost to extending the temporary parts of the 2017 Trump tax cuts that are set to expire at the end of this year.
It’s not clear whether the Senate parliamentarian will allow such an approach in a budget reconciliation measure, which is how Republicans plan to pass their agenda. But it would give the GOP more headroom than the traditional current law baseline, which would hold that keeping the expiring provisions would cost $4 trillion or more over a decade.
The budget resolution that passed the House last month uses the current law approach.
Some House deficit hawks haven’t held back in knocking the current policy baseline — and just within recent days, a CBO analysis requested by Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) found that the federal debt would soar if the tax provisions were extended without being offset.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is in the Capitol meeting with holdout GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Bill Cassidy of Louisiania as he tries to lock down their support for his confirmation as permanent leader of the Justice Department.
Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) declined to respond directly Wednesday to Speaker Mike Johnson’s refusal to denounce his former son-in-law Rep. Max Miller over abuse accusations leveled by Moreno’s daughter: “These aren’t accusations in my world,” he said.
“In my world, this is the reality,” Moreno told reporters at the Capitol. “This is not something that is theoretical to me. This is my lived reality of my daughter and my family every single solitary day.”
In an interview with Dasha Burns for Blue Light News’s The Conversation, Johnson declined to take sides in the dispute between Miller (R-Ohio) and Emily Moreno. He called for a House Ethics probe to “play out.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s expected choice for Army chief of staff faces resistance that could imperil his confirmation, according to the chair of the panel that needs to approve it.
Senate Armed Services head Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said Wednesday that he was aware of “some opposition within the committee” to acting Army chief of staff Gen. Christopher LaNeve taking the job on a permanent basis.
LaNeve, previously Hegseth’s senior military aide, was confirmed as Army vice chief of staff in January. But he has also served as acting chief of staff since April when Hegseth forced out popular Gen. Randy George, a move that drew widespread criticism from lawmakers in both parties.
Wicker said he was “not able to predict right now” if lawmakers could address concerns about LaNeve. He did not specify whether the concerns were raised by Republicans, but GOP resistance is likely given that nominees could advance through the committee on a party-line vote.
LaNeve has only held the position of four-star general for six months, an anomaly for the the senior most Army officer.
The Wall Street Journal first reported about Republican opposition to LaNeve, citing Sen. Joni Ernst’s (R-Iowa) concerns about his lack of experience at the four-star rank.
Ernst, in an interview, did not dispute that she was the source of the holdup. But she called it a moot point as President Donald Trump has not yet formally nominated LaNeve to the position. And she disputed reports that LaNeve’s lack of experience was the sticking point.
“I don’t think that time and grade has anything to do with leadership ability, so I don’t know how that came about, honestly.” she said. “That’s not what I’ve told anyone.”
If the opposition continues, Trump could decide to leave LeNeve in the acting position indefinitely.
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