McConnell rejects Trump’s foreign aid reductions
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday shot down prospects for major parts of President Donald Trump’s budget, rejecting proposed cuts to foreign aid and medical research.
“Every president sends up a budget, and with all due respect to the current president, I can’t recall any time in which we have been sort of dictated to by either a Republican or a Democratic president,” McConnell said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We’ll put our own imprint on it, particularly with regard to overseas.”
Trump’s budget, which would boost military spending while slashing funds for the environment, the National Institutes of Health, public broadcasting and development projects like the Appalachian Regional Commission, was widely panned by fellow Republicans last week.
McConnell once headed the Senate panel responsible for foreign aid and stressed the importance of U.S. spending overseas. He also was a major force behind last year’s Cures Act, a law that boosts spending on medical research, and he opposes any proposed cuts.
“America being a force is a lot more than building up the Defense Department,” McConnell said. “Diplomacy is important, extremely important, and I don’t think these reductions at the State Department are appropriate because many times diplomacy is a lot more effective — and certainly cheaper — than military engagement.”
On another spending issue, McConnell said the politics of the moment mean Republicans controlling Washington won’t touch benefit programs like Medicare and Social Security.
On another big issue, in the interview McConnell warned fellow Republicans of political consequences if they oppose the GOP health care legislation coming up for a vote in
WASHINGTON — The White House is instructing Cabinet heads and agency officials not to elaborate on President Donald Trump’s proposed budget cuts beyond what was in a relatively brief submission, a move Democrats decried as a gag order.
Budget director Mick Mulvaney wrote in a memo late last week that until the full budget release in May, “all public comments of any sort should be limited to the information contained in the Budget Blueprint chapter for your agency,” referring to the 53-page document released last Thursday.
Mulvaney’s memo is similar to edicts issued by previous administrations, both Democratic and Republican. the House this week.
“I would hate to be a Republican whose vote prevented us from keeping the commitment we’ve made to the American people for almost 10 years now” to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s health care law, the Kentucky Republican told AP reporters and editors.
“I think the American people would be deeply disappointed that we were prevented from keeping our commitment by Republicans who in the end, in effect, voted for the status quo.”