Trump wants $54B more for arms

WASHINGTON • President Donald Trump will propose a budget that increases defence-related spending by $54 billion while cutting other federal agencies by the same amount, according to an administration official.

The proposal represents a massive increase in federal spending related to national security, while other priorities, especially foreign aid, will see significant reductions.

According to the White House, the defence budget will increase by 10 per cent.

But without providing specifics, the administration said most other discretionary spending programs will be slashed to pay for it. Officials singled out foreign aid, one of the smallest parts of the federal budget, saying it would see “large reductions” in spending.

It is the first indication of spending priorities by the new administration, with the president set to arrive on Capitol Hill on Tuesday night for a joint-session speech to Congress. But the full budget negotiations between Trump and Congress will not be complete for many months.

In a statement at the White House on Monday morning, Trump said that his budget would put “America first” by focusing on defence, law enforcement and veterans using money previously spent abroad.

“We are going to do more with less and make the government lean and accountable to the people,” Trump said. “We can do so much more with the money we spend.”

The vast majority of federal spending comes from programs Trump can’t touch with his budget.

Social Security costs were approximately $910 billion last year, and Medicare costs outpaced defence spending with a total cost of $588 billion in 2016. Medicaid, interest payments on existing debt, and miscellaneous costs made up an additional $1.2 trillion combined.

Defence spending accounts for almost the same proportion of the federal budget as all non-discretionary domestic spending, meaning that the Trump administration’s proposal will result in a roughly 10-percent across-the-board cut in all other federal spending programs.

Trump noted that the country faces an urgent infrastructure problem, that he promised in the presidential campaign to address with a $1-trillion infrastructure spending plan. While the administration has not yet outlined whether infrastructure will be part of Trump’s budget proposal, the president spoke about it before a gathering of governors at the White House on Monday.

“We’re going to make it easier for states to invest in infrastructure,” Trump said. “We spent $6 trillion in the Middle East, and we have potholes all over our highways and our roads.”

“Infrastructure, we’re going to start spending on infrastructure — big,” he added.