NM Dems denounce Trump’s budget plan
Spending on defense, labs would grow as Medicaid gets big cut
WASHINGTON — Federal spending on New Mexico’s nuclear weapons labs and military bases would rise while Medicaid and other programs for the poor would face dramatic budget cuts under a 2018 budget proposal released by the White House on Tuesday.
The $4.1 trillion spending plan relies on projected economic growth and reductions in social program spending to balance the government’s books over the next decade.
“We look at this budget through the eyes of the people who are actually paying the bills,” White House budget director Mick Mulvaney told reporters Tuesday.
But many Democrats and even some Republicans who are wary of cuts that could affect their constituents pronounced President Donald Trump’s first full budget proposal dead on arrival in Congress.
“Senators from both sides of the aisle are already lining up to reject it, and I am confident Trump’s budget plan will be dead on arrival in Congress,” said Sen. Tom Udall, a New Mexico Democrat who sits on the Appropriations Committee.
The budget blueprint would boost spending for the military by tens of billions
and also calls for $1.6 billion for a border wall with Mexico that Trump repeatedly promised voters the U.S. neighbor would pay for.
Trump’s blueprint for the 2018 budget year includes cuts to programs such as Medicaid, federal employee pensions, welfare and farm subsidies. The reductions include a whopping $193 billion from food stamps over the coming decade — a cut of more than 25 percent — implemented by cutting back eligibility and imposing additional work requirements.
New Mexico has the nation’s largest percentage of young children receiving food stamps, with nearly half of children ages 4 and under participating in the program, officially called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
Medicaid, the government insurance program for the poor and many disabled Americans, would be cut by more than $600 billion over 10 years by capping payments to states and giving governors more flexibility to manage their rosters of Medicaid recipients. Those cuts are on top of the repeal of Obamacare’s expansion of the program to 14 million people and amount to, by decade’s end, an almost 25 percent cut from present projections.
A program designed to move people who are receiving Social Security disability payments back into the workforce also faces opposition on Capitol Hill. Administration officials defended these measures as a way to reduce government support they contend is keeping millions of Americans out of the workforce and thus reducing economic growth.
New Mexico’s congressional Democrats assailed the budget as an assault on the poor with tax breaks proposed for the wealthiest Americans. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., said the budget “stacks the deck against the most vulnerable Americans.”
“A budget should be a reflection of our core values and principles, yet Trump’s budget is filled with broken promises to those who need our help the most,” he said.
Rep. Ben Ray Luján said the budget’s priorities don’t reflect Trump’s rhetoric in the 2016 campaign.
“He campaigned on restoring jobs and economic fairness to the middle class in small-town America, but his budget does the opposite,” Lujan said.
Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., said the budget isn’t perfect but it rightly aims to get federal spending under control.
“Without significant course corrections, we are slated to leave our children and grandchildren with an unsurmountable debt,” Pearce said. “It is refreshing to see a president diligently attempt to provide our nation with a balanced and sustainable budget. While nowhere near perfect or the final product that will be crafted by Congress, President Trump’s proposal forces a much-needed conversation on our nation’s spending priorities.”
The proposal projects that this year’s deficit will rise to $603 billion, compared with an actual deficit of $585 billion last year. But the document says if Trump’s initiatives are adopted, the deficit will start decreasing and actually reach a small surplus of $16 billion in 2027.
That goal, however, depends on growth projections that most economists view as overly optimistic and a variety of accounting gimmicks, including an almost $600 billion peace dividend from winding down overseas military operations.
The National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees work at Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories in New Mexico, would get a $1 billion budget bump in 2018 under the $13.9 billion requested by the administration. NNSA Administrator Frank G. Klotz said the budget would ensure “that U.S. nuclear forces are modern, robust, flexible, resilient, ready and appropriately tailored to deter 21st-century threats and reassure our allies.”
“It also includes long-overdue investments to repair and replace aging infrastructure at our national laboratories and production plants, and to provide modern and more efficient workspace for our highly talented scientific, engineering and professional workforce,” he said.
The budget proposes roughly $2.1 billion for Sandia in Albuquerque, compared with $1.8 billion this year. It includes $98 million for a new NNSA facility on property in Albuquerque, next to the Kirtland Air Force Base east perimeter fence on Eubank Avenue. The White House has suggested $2.2 billion for Los Alamos, compared with $2.1 billion budgeted for the current year.
“The proposed funding level for Los Alamos is adequate to ensure we can continue our hiring efforts without interruption, and that the laboratory’s funding will remain stable into the next fiscal year,” Los Alamos Director Charles McMillan wrote to LANL employees Tuesday, according to an internal memo obtained by the Journal.
Meanwhile, the budget’s proposal for nuclear nonproliferation, or securing the threat of loose nuclear weapons around the globe, represents a $147 million cut from current-year spending to $1.7 billion, a decrease of more than 8 percent.
The budget would reduce federal spending on the Land and Water Conservation Fund by 84 percent and eliminate all new federal land acquisitions, including pending projects in the Rio Grande del Norte and the Gila National Forest.
On taxes, Trump promises an overhaul that would cut tax rates but rely on economic growth and elimination of tax breaks to avoid adding to the deficit. It would create three tax brackets — 10 percent, 25 percent and 35 percent — instead of the current seven and promises to lower the corporate tax rate to 15 percent.