Turkey leader: Dutch to ‘pay the price’ for snubs
ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS
Turkish President Recep — Tayyip Erdogan intensified his dispute with European nations Sunday, claiming that “Nazism is alive in the West” after two of his ministers were prevented from campaigning in the Netherlands and promising that the Dutch would “pay the price” for their unusual action.
While Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte worked to contain the diplomatic damage, Erdogan made it clear that Turkey would not be easily appeased.
He said Ankara would retaliate for the treatment of the Turkish family affairs minister, who on Saturday was blocked by police in riot gear from entering Turkey’s consulate in Rotterdam.
That came hours after Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was denied airport landing rights to address a Rotterdam rally.
Saying that he was wrong to think Nazism was over, Erdogan made the comment to an audience in Istanbul. The remarks were similar to ones he made about Germany earlier this month.
The Dutch prime minster said it was important for his government not to bow to pressure from Turkey, especially after Ankara threatened sanctions if the Dutch kept Turkish ministers out.
“Turkey is a proud nation. The Netherlands is a proud nation. We can never do business under those sorts of threats and blackmail,” said Mark Rutte, whose party is locked in a neck-and-neck race with populist firebrand Geert Wilders.
To bolster support for an April 16 referendum that would expand the powers of Turkey’s president, Turkish cabinet ministers have scheduled campaign trips to several European countries with sizable populations of Turkish expatriates.
However, some European nations have complained that Turkey under Erdogan is slipping toward authoritarian practices, especially since last summer’s aborted coup. Rutte cited that concern in asking Cavusoglu not to come to the Netherlands.
The furor between two NATO allies comes at a crucial time in the Netherlands, where issues of Dutch identity, relations with migrants and Islam have taken center stage in the run-up to a national election Wednesday.
Rutte’s actions, which came two days after several German municipalities canceled rallies that Turkish Cabinet ministers had planned to address, prompted Erdogan on Saturday to accuse the Dutch of being “Nazi remnants.”
On Sunday, he heaped on more criticism while demanding an apology from the Dutch.
Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said no apologies would be forthcoming.
President WASHINGTON — Donald Trump sends Congress a proposed budget this week that will sharply test Republicans’ ability to keep long-standing promises to bolster the military, making politically painful cuts to a lengthy list of popular domestic programs.
The Republican president will ask his adopted political party, which runs Capitol Hill, to cut domestic agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development, along with grants to state and local governments and community development projects. The spending plan, set for release Thursday, would make the Pentagon the big winner with a $54 billion boost to defense spending.
Trump has promised to “do a lot more with less,” but his blueprint faces a reality test with Republicans, many of whom are already protesting.
Republicans have groused about some preliminary plans, including elimination of the $3 billion community development block grant program popular among local GOP officials, a 25 percent cut to the EPA and elimination of 3,000 jobs, and essentially scuttling a $300 million-per-year program to clean up the Great Lakes.
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, is joining with Democrats to push back on that last proposed reduction. Cuts to the Coast Guard are meeting Republican resistance. Trump’s plan to eliminate community development block grants was dismissed on Capitol Hill by those who remember how a modest cut to the program sank a spending bill not long ago.
“Unfortunately, we have no alternative but to reinvest in our military and make ourselves a military power once again,” White House economic adviser Gary Cohn said on “Fox News Sunday.”
The United States, however, already spends more than a half-trillion dollars on defense, more than the next seven countries combined.
Cohn defended the spending cuts elsewhere as necessary to balance the budget. “These are tough decisions, but the president has shown he is ready, willing and able to make these tough decisions,” he said Sunday.
Democrats are unlikely to support the cuts, and Republican defections raise the possibility of a congressional train wreck and a potential government shutdown when the 2018 budget year begins Oct. 1.
Preliminary reports on the budget show some domestic Cabinet agencies, such as the departments of Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs, would see increases, including $3 billion for Trump’s promised wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump said repeatedly during the campaign that Mexico would pay for the wall, but Mexico has said no.
Those intended spending increases, however, would mean deeper cuts elsewhere.
People familiar with the budget who spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the public release say the White House is seeking a 30 percent cut from an Energy Department office that promotes energy efficiency and renewable energy. The office has funded research on projects such as LED light bulbs, electric trucks, advanced batteries and biofuels.
The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is targeted for at least $700 million in cuts from its current $2.1 billion budget, said Scott Sklar, chairman of the steering committee of the Sustainable Energy Coalition.
The Energy Department could see steep cuts for its 17 national laboratories, which conduct cutting-edge research on topics from nuclear power to advanced materials for energy generation, storage and use.
Trump’s submission won’t tell the complete story. It will be limited to the discretionary, $1 trillion-plus portion of the $4 trillion annual federal budget that pays for Cabinet agencies and departments.
These annually appropriated programs have been squeezed in recent years while the costs of mandatory programs such as Medicare and Social Security have risen each year, mostly unchecked.
The remainder of Trump’s budget — proposals on taxes, mandatory spending and deficits and projections on the economy — won’t come out until May. That document is sure to upset members of the GOP’s once-proud and large band of deficit hawks, because Trump’s full plans are sure to show large, permanent budget deficits, even with all of the tricks and tools available to the White House Budget office.
The government ran a $587 billion deficit last year that required it to borrow 15 cents of every dollar it spent.