Trump’s Budget Chief Responds To Fiscal Hawk ‘Heartburn’ Over ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’

President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” offers a “historic level of mandatory savings,” Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russell Vought declared on Wednesday when pressed for a response to the legislation’s skeptics among conservative lawmakers.

Vought spoke about the legislation making its way through Congress through the reconciliation process during an appearance on “The Ben Shapiro Show” as House Republican leadership tries to rally the GOP rank-and-file behind the comprehensive package that aims to provide funding for Trump’s domestic priorities, retain the 2017 tax cuts, raise the debt limit, and more.

After noting how fiscal hawks are experiencing “heartburn” over the bill not doing enough to cut the nearly $37 trillion national deficit and concerns that it might actually contribute to the deficit or lead to more debt, Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro asked Vought to provide the “truth” of the matter.

.@RussVought45, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, details President Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” pic.twitter.com/qtTZ876fUk

— The Ben Shapiro Show (@BenShapiroShow) May 21, 2025

“This is the most historic level of mandatory savings that we’ve had, ever: $1.6 trillion,” Vought replied. “And just to give people a little bit of context: for 30 years, we’ve had virtually no efforts to” rein in spending programs, “which are the things that are kind of hardwired into permanent law. Welfare benefits, things like Medicaid, and we’ve had nothing of consequence since the 1997 Balanced Budget Agreement which included the work requirements with a Republican Congress and [former President] Bill Clinton.”

Vought said the bill currently being considered by Congress “essentially doubles that with $1.6 trillion, begins to have sizable savings to get illegal immigrants off of Medicaid, to have a work requirement in Medicaid to take those reforms from 1997 and apply them to more of the federal programs to get people back into the labor force.”

The bill “does sizable things,” Vought continued, noting that the Trump administration believes the bill will also bring economic growth.

“My view as the budget guy: you can’t cut spending if you don’t have a growing economy,” he said. “And so, the last thing you wanna do is not preserve these cuts, get them extended, that really is just what current law is. There’s a unique thing in budget land where you allow for programs to be permanent, but tax relief sunsets. So all that we’re doing is extending what is essentially current law and then adding $1.6 trillion in mandatory savings. We think it’s actually historic and something this town hasn’t even begun to approach, as we are working with members to be able to tell that story.”