‘BROKE’N SYSTEM
Trump gears up to fight ‘out of control’ budget
President Trump warned Wednesday that the government will have to do “more with less” because the nation is in a financial “mess.”
“Unfortunately, the budget we’re essentially inheriting is a mess. The finances of our country are a mess,” Trump said before a lunch meeting with officials to discuss the US budget.
“We’re going to take this budget, which is, in all fairness, I’ve only been here for four weeks so I can’t take too much of the blame for what’s happened, but it is absolutely out of control,” he added.
He put the nation’s debt at nearly $20 trillion.
“We must do more with less,” Trump said.
“We have already saved a lot — billions and billions of dollars.”
Trump announced that the new budget for the federal government would likely be rolled out in early to mid-March.
“We’ll be submitting something that I think people will be very impressed by,” he said.
Attending the meeting were Jared Kushner, Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney.
The meeting was in preparation for Trump’s address next week before a joint session of Congress, where in addition to the budget, the president is expected to discuss health care and tax reform.
That speech is scheduled for Tuesday.
“I think he’s going to lay out his vision and talk about things like education and health care and infrastructure, the problems that we face as a country, the violence in some of our inner cities, but also some of the solutions that we can act on and some of the partnerships that we can create. It’s obviously still a work in progress,” said White House spokesman Sean Spicer.
“But I think in the drafts that I’ve seen so far, it is going to be a very strong blueprint of where he wants to take this country . . . You’ve got ObamaCare, the budget and tax reforms. It’s going to be a very busy March and April for us.”
The Trump administration has promised to repeal and replace ObamaCare — President Barack Obama’s signature health-care legislation that was passed in 2010.
Additionally, the administration has promised to rein in spending, claiming it was out of control under Obama.
On the campaign trail, Trump himself said he’d be able to eliminate the national debt within eight years.
“We have enormous work to do as the national debt doubled over the last eight years. Our debt has doubled over a short period of time,” Trump said at the start of his budget meeting Wednesday.
“I want the American people to know that our budget will reflect their priorities. We’ll be directing all of our departments and agencies to protect every last American and every last tax dollar. No more wasted money.”
So far, Trump has failed to achieve any major legislative accomplishments — and while he’s been encouraging Congress to act in broad terms, he has not yet pushed for a single specific piece of legislation.
Instead, the new president has come to rely on executive orders and actions to carry out his agenda, specifically regarding his immigration policy.