Alabama Republicans back Trump budget plan despite past deficit warnings

They’ve railed against deficits. They’ve voted down spending packages. But this week, Alabama’s Republican House members backed President Donald Trump’s endorsed budget blueprint expected to swell the national debt by nearly $6 trillion.

With a tight 216-214 vote in the U.S. House, the resolution—a blueprint for Trump’s agenda that includes tax cuts and increased defense and border security funding—got over the line Thursday thanks in part to support from Alabama’s GOP delegation. That includes Rep. Barry Moore of Enterprise and Rep. Gary Palmer of Hoover, both members of the Freedom Caucus long associated with fiscal hawkishness.

“The American people gave House Republicans a mandate to secure the border, restore energy independence, and make America wealthy again,” Moore said, calling the vote “an opportunity for us to show the American people we are united and ready to enact President Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda.”

Moore had initially been “undecided,” telling Alabama Daily News on Tuesday that he was concerned about stark differences in spending cuts pitched in the House and Senate plans. In the House, lawmakers aim to cut $1.5 trillion while the Senate’s cuts are at around $4 billion.

Other Alabama Republicans praised the proposal.

“With Speaker Johnson’s leadership, we’re delivering real relief for rural families, farmers, and small businesses in the 4th District—lowering taxes and protecting the values that keep America strong,” said Rep. Robert Aderholt in a post on X.

Republican support

The resolution vote the House approved represents a blueprint for a future massive bill Republicans hope to pass through a process known as “reconciliation.” The process would then enable the Republicans to avoid a supermajority to overcome a Senate filibuster and enable the measure to pass both chambers with only GOP support.

The package will ultimately include Trump’s priorities, such as border security, domestic energy production, and tax cuts, including a reduction in taxes on tips.

Related: ‘Can of worms’: How removing taxes on tips could affect Alabama

The legislation would also extend tax cuts implemented during Trump’s first term in office, set to expire this year. According to media reports, those cuts could add $3.8 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years.

Palmer and U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Saks, did not respond to a request for comment.

Palmer, last year said he voted against an appropriations act because Congress had repeatedly ignored the nation’s deficit and immigration crisis.

Palmer, on X, praised the passage of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or the SAVE Act, which also occurred Thursday. The act requires states to reject any voter registration application that hasn’t shown documented proof of U.S. citizenship.

Palmer retweeted House Majority Whip Tom Emmer’s statement praising the House budget vote, saying it represented “one step closer to delivering” on Trump’s agenda. Emmer said the “real work of crafting our reconciliation bill can begin” as a result of Thursday’s vote.

U.S. Rep. Dale Strong, R-Huntsville, also said he supported the resolution because it represented a way to advance Trump’s agenda.

“Americans are counting on us to stop tax hikes while also cutting regulations and wasteful spending,” Strong said. “This is a step in the right direction, and now we can move forward with the reconciliation process.”

Deficit criticism

None of the statements sent to AL.com or posted on social media included references to potential deficit spending. Alabama’s GOP lawmakers often expressed repeated concerns about deficit spending during Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration.

In recent months, former Republican Congressman Mo Brooks of Huntsville, and a current AL.com columnist, has criticized Republicans from Alabama for not joining other budget hawks in raising concerns over ballooning deficits.

Casey Burgat, legislative affairs program director at George Washington University, said the big qualifier in why budget hawks change their stance on deficits boils down to partisanship.

“We saw two ‘No’ votes, but that number of deficit hawks gets smaller and smaller as long as their co-partisan is in the White House,” he said.

On Thursday, only two House Republicans -- Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana – voted against it. Spartz, on X, said the GOP budget is “setting us up for the largest deficit increase in the history of our Republic.”

The budget’s fate was uncertain earlier in the week as a group of Republican holdouts worried about fiscal responsibility and deficits. Moore, according to Alabama Daily News, was one of them.

Texas Rep. Chip Roy and other deficit hawks reportedly refused to vote the plan Wednesday night over concerns that it would lead to a skyrocketing national debt.

Burgat said there is likely “a lot of pressure” on lawmakers to back Trump’s budget plan. But he said that lawmakers like Roy and Massie have created their own “brands” that insulates them from the pressure to concede their budget votes.

“There needs to be more of those who are not subject to the pressures of the White House,” he said.

Democrats: Medicaid concerns

Alabama’s two Democratic lawmakers joined the rest of their caucus in voting against the budget resolution. Democrats are concerned that Republicans will need to make significant changes to Medicaid and other benefit programs to achieve their tax cuts.

Alabama relies heavily on federal support for Medicaid, which provides benefits to more than 313,000 residents. According to a KFF analysis published by Newsweek, Alabama ranks only behind Mississippi and West Virginia for having a greater reliance on the federal government for Medicaid spending.

U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Mobile, expressed concern that Republicans were creating a budget framework that would cut hundreds of billions of dollars from programs like Medicaid, SNAP benefits, and other essential services, all in an effort to provide tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans.

U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, said the House budget resolution “takes food away from hungry families” and makes “massive cuts to health care” in order to provide a tax break to “the very wealthy.”

“Under their proposal, billionaires like Elon Musk get rewarded while hard working Alabama families get left behind,” Sewell said, referencing the CEO and architect of Tesla who is also the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Sewell, in releasing a budget FAQ sheet, stated that 176,181 people on Medicaid in her 7th congressional district could lose their health care under the Republican plan. She said that includes 121,745 children under age 19 and 23,000 seniors over 65 years old.

Other cuts are expected to affect SNAP, school lunches, Pell grants for students, and could lead to a 66% increase in premiums for those receiving coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

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