Trump budget gets cold shoulder

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s budget hasn’t been released yet, but that’s not stopping some of Capitol Hill’s most important Republicans from giving it a cold shoulder.

Trump’s blueprint for the 2018 budget year comes out Tuesday, and it’s certain to include a wave of cuts to benefit programs such as Medicaid, food stamps, federal employee pensions and farm subsidies.

The fleshed-out proposal follows up on an unpopular partial release in March that targeted the budgets of domestic agencies and foreign aid for cuts averaging 10 percent — and made lawmakers in both parties recoil.

The new cuts are unpopular as well.

“We think it’s wrongheaded,” said Rep. Mike Conaway, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, when asked about looming cuts to farm programs. “Production agriculture is in the worst slump since the depression — 50 percent drop in the net income for producers. They need this safety net,” said Conaway, R-Texas.

Trump’s budget plan promises to balance the federal ledger by the end of a 10-year window, even while exempting Social Security and Medicare retirement benefits from cuts. To achieve balance, the plan relies on optimistic estimates of economic growth, and the surge in revenues that could result, while abandoning Trump’s promise of a “massive tax cut” in favor of a smaller one.

Trump also is targeting the Medicaid health program that provides care to the poor and disabled, and nursing home care to millions of older people who could not otherwise afford it.