Trump budget chief defends plan

Program promises balanced budget in decade, critics say economic growth projections too optimistic

WASHINGTON — The White House budget chief on Wednesday delivered a spirited defence of President Donald Trump’s proposal to slash programs from food stamps to health care for the poor in the face of strong Democratic opposition and Republican skepticism.

Mick Mulvaney, the former Tea Party congressman, told the House Budget Committee that he went line by line through the federal budget and asked, “Can we justify this to the folks who are actually paying for it?”

Trump’s budget fulfils his campaign pledge to leave Medicare and social security benefits alone and boosts spending for the military and veterans. But it treats most of the rest of the government as fair game, including $600 (all figures US) billion in cuts to Medicaid over a decade — on top of repealing its large expansion under former president Barack Obama’s health care law.

Democratic defenders of the program warned that would deny health care and nursing home care to millions of people.

The administration also promises a balanced budget in a decade based on rosy economic estimates, including three per cent growth.

Republican representative Mark Sanford laced into the budget, saying it was based on fanciful economic predictions of high growth rates but low inflation and bond yields that would make managing the government’s $20 trillion debt less costly.

Democrats charged that Trump’s cuts would rip apart the social safety net. Representative Pramila Jayapal said cuts to food stamps, payments to the disabled, and other programs are “astonishing and frankly immoral.”

Trump’s budget is simply a proposal. There’s little appetite among Capitol Hill Republicans for a genuine effort to balance the budget.