Mulvaney: Budget will have money for wall

WASHINGTON— President Donald Trump’s budget director says the budget that the administration sends to Congress today will seek to move some of the billions of dollars in extra spending that Congress approved last week to areas that will reflect the president’s priorities.

Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said Sunday that the administration’s budget plan will include $3 billion for the wall along the southern border that Trump has made a priority, but there will be a contingency for $25 billion in spending on the wall over two years if Congress passes legislation to deal with young immigrants known as Dreamers.

Mulvaney acknowledged the new spending approved last week could result in annual deficits in future years of $1 trillion and higher, but he said the administration will propose ways to avoid that fate.

Trump on Friday signed a $400 billion budget deal that sharply boosts spending and swells the federal deficit, ending a brief federal government shutdown. Trump tweeted that the bill would make the military “stronger than ever before” and the increased spending will mean “JOBS, JOBS, JOBS.”

But irate conservatives pointed to projections that the increased spending puts the government on track to hit a $1.2 trillion deficit in 2019 and to record tril-lion-deficits far into the future.

Mulvaney, appearing on Fox News Sunday, acknowledged that the forecast for a $1.2 trillion-dollar-plus deficit in 2019 was “probably close to being accurate.” But he said the president’s budget for 2019 would show ways to avoid that outcome.

“When we roll out the budget on Monday … you are going to get a chance to see how we can avoid that future,” Mulvaney said.