Lawmaker: GOP should take page from Trump on budget

A leading House conservative suggested Thursday that GOP leaders take a page out of Donald Trump’s playbook.

Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho) said Republicans should get tougher with President Obama and abandon the two-year budget deal the White House negotiated with former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).

He also suggested that Trump’s success in the GOP primary shows that being tough appeals to the party’s base.

{mosads}”This is why Donald Trump is doing so well. Because at least he knows how to negotiate. Our appropriators, our leadership, has absolutely no clue how to negotiate,” Labrador said in response to a question from The Hill.

“Maybe they should read ‘The Art of the Deal’ and figure out how it is you negotiate big deals,” he added sarcastically, referring to the real estate mogul’s best-selling book.

House GOP leaders and appropriators are weighing their options for adopting a budget this year. Republicans will huddle Friday morning to discuss the way forward.

The majority of House Republicans voted against last year’s budget accord. Those lawmakers aren’t inclined to vote for the same spending outlines a few months later as a framework for appropriations bills this year.

But adopting a more conservative budget that ignores the spending deal would make it tougher to pass spending bills that can clear the Senate, where Democrats still wield filibuster power.

And that could increase the chances that Congress will have to move an omnibus spending package.

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, insisted that Republicans should pass a budget resolution they as a party can rally around, noting that Congress has changed course on spending deals before.

“This idea that the number is set in stone and can’t be a Republican number is ridiculous. Let’s bring up a budget that Republicans can support,” Amash said.