GOP hardliners threaten revolt over Johnson plan to implement Trump agenda | CNN Politics

Speaker Mike Johnson’s budget plan is in trouble as multiple GOP hardliners seek last-minute changes that could risk support from the party’s centrist middle — jeopardizing leadership’s plans to kickstart President Donald Trump’s agenda in Congress.

Just hours after the House GOP’s compromise plan was released, fiscal hawks in the chamber lined up to call for steeper cuts beyond the current reduction target of $1.5 trillion over a decade. But the size of those cuts is already difficult for some GOP centrists to swallow, with Republicans, including Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, still unwilling to say whether they support cuts of that size.

Rep. Ralph Norman, a South Carolina Republican who sits on the House Budget Committee that will vote on the measure Thursday, declined to say if he would support it and said he wants to guarantee that the final bill will include policy such as work requirements for Medicaid, as well as an anti-red tape bill called the REINS Act. Three other members of that panel — Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, Tom McClintock of California and Andrew Clyde of Georgia — would not answer when asked how they’d vote on Thursday. A fourth member, Rep. Ben Cline of Virginia, said he is a “lean yes.”

Some signaled that conservatives could make changes to the measure during Thursday’s markup, though they declined to offer details. Rep. Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican and member of the House Freedom Caucus who does not sit on the budget panel, suggested that changes could come during the makeup on Thursday though he wouldn’t offer more details.

The backlash from GOP hardliners is sharp despite weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiations between Johnson, his leadership team and the right flank of the conference. Rep. Eric Burlison of Missouri called the spending cuts target “pathetic” and said he believes there are at least a half dozen Republicans who agree and would oppose the plan on the floor. That number — given Johnson’s razor-thin margins — is enough to tank the bill.

The budget plan requires Republicans to cut at least $1.5 trillion in mandatory spending, with a goal of $2 trillion. But many conservatives say they want to see a specific target of $2 trillion, saying otherwise that extra half-trillion in cuts won’t happen.

Achieving that level of cuts will likely require Republicans to find savings in Medicaid, which has made some centrist-leaning Republicans uneasy. And some are frustrated that ultraconservatives demanded changes to the previous measure, which Speaker Johnson had outlined to GOP lawmakers earlier in the year.