Trump’s budget reflects his major priorities
Campaign themes show up in spending proposals for 2018 TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUR
@mgroppe USA TODAY WASHINGTON White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney defended the major cuts to social safety-net programs included in President Trump’s budget proposal, saying Tuesday that there’s still plenty of funding for people who truly need help.
“We are not kicking anybody off of any program who really needs it,” Mulvaney said after the White House sent Trump’s first full budget plan for fiscal year 2018 to Capitol Hill.
But some people are getting food assistance or disability payments who should be working instead, and the federal government can’t afford to spend as much on health care programs for more than the most disadvantaged, Mulvaney said.
With those and other program cuts, Trump’s proposal promises a balanced budget in 10 years while increasing funding for the president’s top priorities, including national defense, a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico and tax cuts.
“They are all campaign promises the president made,” Mulvaney said.
To get there, the White House assumes the economy will grow faster than projected under current policies.
And, budget experts say, the administration relies on unrealistic expectations, such as that the tax cuts won’t reduce federal revenue.
“This one has all the gimmicks you could possibly get,” said Stan Collender, a private budget analyst.
Because the budget does not touch the two largest federal programs — Medicare and the nondisability portion of Social Security — the approximately one-third of federal spending primarily benefiting low- and middle-income recipients would bear new federal immigration agents; and $2.6 billion to expand and improve the border wall.
NATIONAL DEFENSE
The $639 billion proposed for military spending would allow the Pentagon to bolster its ranks by more than 56,000 troops, buy more helicopters and trucks for the Army, boost the Navy’s fleet and pay for more stealth warplanes for the Air Force.
The Pentagon would spend $65 billion for the wars against the Islamic State across the Middle East and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAMS
No Cabinet-level agency would absorb a bigger hit than the Environmental Protection Agency, a favorite target of Trump and Republicans who say the EPA epitomized the over-regulation that characterized the Obama era.
The budget would cut the EPA’s budget from $8.2 billion to $5.7 billion, or 31%. Few programs escape unscathed, notably those that monitor climate change.
FARM PROGRAMS
Federally subsidized crop insurance programs would be cut more than one-third over the next decade, an idea unlikely to go far with farm-state lawmakers.
FOOD ASSISTANCE
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as food stamps, would take one of the bigger hits — a cut of $190 billion over 10 years. Mulvaney said the cuts are intended to get able-bodied adults off the program. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Rep. Michael Conaway, R-Texas, who chair the Agriculture committees in their chambers, released a statement supporting the economic growth goals but added that they will fight “to ensure farmers have a strong safety net.”
EDUCATION
Trump’s proposed 13% cut to the Education Department includes eliminating a $1.2 billion afterschool and summer program the White House says “lacks strong evidence of meeting its objectives.” And the budget cuts arts, civics, history, foreign languages, basic literacy and teacher preparation programs, among others.
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Highlighted by big boosts to immigration and violent-crime enforcement, the Justice Department’s nearly $28 billion budget proposal adds at least 300 federal prosecutors.
DRUG ADDICTION
The plan reverses a much-criticized proposal floated by Trump administration officials earlier this month to gut the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which directs the country’s drug prevention effort.
ENERGY
The Energy Department would take a 5.6% funding cut. In addition, the administration proposes to boost government revenue by selling half of the nation’s emergency oil stockpile.