Trump budget proposes surge for military, cuts in domestic programs
‘We’re going to start spending on infrastructure big.’
President Donald WASHINGTON — Trump is proposing a huge $54 billion surge in U.S. military spending for new aircraft, ships and fighters in his first federal budgetwhile slashing big chunks fromdomestic programs and foreign aid to make the government “do more with less.”
The Trump blueprint, due in more detail next month, would fulfill the Republican president’s campaign pledge to boost Pentagon spendingwhile targeting the budgets of other federal agencies. The “topline” figures emerged Monday, one day before Trump’s first address to a joint session of Congress, an opportunity to re-emphasize the economic issues that were a centerpiece of his White House run.
Domestic programs and foreign aidwould as awhole absorb a 10 percent, $54 billion cut from currently projected levels — cuts
A Trump administration proposal to reportedly add $54 billion to the defense budget would be good for Wright-Patterson if it eliminated spending caps under sequestration, according to MichaelGessel, Dayton Development Coalition vice president of federal programs.
The cuts in the fiscal year 2018 budget would come at the expense of spending reductions at other federal agencies that have not been detailed, reports say.
Donald Trump called for an end to sequestration on the campaign trail.
“He talked about the need to eliminate budget spending caps on defense and that will have a significant boost for defense (and) that will likely benefit Wright-Patterson if that happens,” Gessel said. “Increasing the defense budget is good news forWright-Patterson, but we will have to wait to see the details.”
Sequestration imposed spending caps under the Budget Control Act of 2011, which imposed automatic defense spending cuts.
Gessel pointed to four key Wright-Patterson missions that could benefit with more dollars: science and technology research, acquisition, military intelligence and graduate education.
Money added to the fiscal year 2018 defense budget would have to be added after the repeal of sequestration, or as part of overseas warfare funding, said LorenB. Thompson, a senior defense analyst with the Virginia-based Lexington Institute and a defense industry consultant.
“This is all problematic in political terms,” Thompson said in an email. “The new director of the Office of Management and Budget has said he does not want to use the war supplemental for items unrelated to overseas contingencies, and it will be hard to attract eight Democrats in the Senate so the administration has the required “super-majority” of 60 senators necessary to repeal the Budget Control Act.