$4.4T in ‘wish list’
Trump budget plan
President Trump unveiled a new $4.4 trillion budget proposal Monday that boosts spending for the military, homeland security and infrastructure while imposing cuts to social-welfare programs.
Trump’s second budget, about $300 billion more than the current one, would also add $984 billion to the 2019 fiscal deficit and nearly $7.1 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade, ignoring concerns from fiscal hawks over a ballooning national debt.
“Does it balance? No, it doesn’t,” conceded Budget Director Mick Mulvaney.
“I couldn’t come in here and tell you using solid numbers that we could balance [the budget] in 10 years, because we can’t.”
Freed from budget caps, Trump proposed a $686 billion budget for the Pentagon, aimed at “reversing the erosion of the US military advantage in relation to China and Russia.”
Trump called for a 2.6 percent raise for service members, but not for civilian employees.
Homeland security was bolstered with $1.6 billion for the border wall and $782 million to hire about 2,000 immigration agents and 750 more Border Patrol officers.
Infrastructure was allocated $200 billion intended to leverage a total of $1.5 trillion investment by states and localities.
On the domestic side, the budget slashes $263 billion over a decade for programs that help low-income families.
In a major shake-up, Trump would stop some food-stamp cash payments and instead give families boxes of food.
Other savings come from limiting retirement and health benefits for federal employees, imposing a 2019 pay freeze on federal workers, and slowly moving to performance-based pay rewards.
The budget now heads to Congress, where lawmakers were quick to point out it’s the president’s wish list and to expect changes.
“Budgets are aspirational documents and seldom have a real impact on spending,” Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) told The Washington Post.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who forced a government shutdown last week protesting rising government spending, tweeted, “Empty rhetoric about fiscal responsibility is about to be swept aside by the reality of trillion-dollar deficits.”