Trump tries to woo conservatives with bid to cut spending

The White House on Tuesday will send $15 billion in proposed spending cuts to Congress in an attempt to demonstrate fiscal austerity to skeptical conservatives, senior administration officials confirmed Monday night.

The administration had last week planned to send Congress a package of $11 billion in spending reductions. But since then, some conservatives have quietly pushed for an even bolder proposal, particularly after the GOP’s spending binge in recent months, said Republicans familiar with the discussions.

The White House initially floated as much as $60 billion in cuts, including an unprecedented attempt to cancel money from this year’s omnibus spending bill. The proposal was later downsized to $11 billion, and then back up to $15 billion, targeting only unused funding from past years, which POLITICO first reported.

One senior administration official told reporters that the proposal coming Tuesday is “the largest single rescissions package at one time.”

The White House also plans to make a second attempt at clawing back funding from the omnibus, but the senior administration official said that could come weeks later.