Reducing government spending: Laudable effort, Outlook: Zero
President Trump’s record $4.7 trillion budget plan faces tough opposition in Congress but Rep. Tom Graves focuses on the positive side of spending cuts proposed for a wide range of programs.
The budget calls for major increases in defense spending and $8.6 billion for completing Trump’s long promised barrier along the southern border. But cuts of $1.9 trillion — cost savings, the White House says — are proposed for social programs plus slashing the EPA budget by almost one-third, the Department of Housing and Urban Development by 16 percent and the Education Department by 10 percent. Those are real cuts that would make a real difference for those agencies.
Rep. Graves, who represents Rome and Northwest Georgia, said in a statement the president is keeping his promises and the budget proposal “is a courageous step to address our growing national debt.” Further, he said: “Washington should spend less, not more. By reducing spending by $2.7 trillion over 10 years, this proposal takes an honest look at the drivers of deficit spending and makes tough choices. The simple truth is that the road to get our fiscal house in order isn’t an easy one.”
The congressman zeroes in on the problem in Washington — too much spending. Despite the proposed cuts, there’s no getting around the fact that Trump’s plan calls for record spending and sky-high deficits. The White House’s top budget official, OMB acting director Russ Vought, told a congressional committee the deficit will grow to $1.1 trillion in the next fiscal year although he said he believed the figure would improve over 10 years. Even so, in 2024 he said, “We will still be looking at $1 trillion deficits.” The administration is expecting the strong economy and the corporate tax cuts to provide growing tax revenues to reduce the deficit.
“Deficits have certainly worsened over the first two years, but over 10 years we believe that deficits will improve,” Vought told the committee. “We believe that the corporate tax cuts are very, very important to our economic growth numbers.” That is the optimistic view but there is no getting around the imperative for serious reductions in spending by the federal government.
Georgia’s senior U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-Marietta), who serves on the Senate Finance Committee overseeing more than half the federal budget, said the plan “serves as an outline of the president’s priorities” as Congress takes up appropriations bills. Isakson, a steadfast conservative, put the matter in proper perspective. “Ultimately,” he said, it is up to the Senate and the House “to set funding levels for federal programs, and proposals in the president’s budget to cut or increase funding for certain programs, will not necessarily be adopted by Congress.” In another statement, he called the budget “a meaningful guideline as Congress moves forward in setting federal spending priorities with limited federal dollars.”
Those priorities include funding the essential programs for our veterans, of special concern to Isakson, who chairs the Veterans Affairs committee in the Senate. He pointed to the plan’s strong support for implementing landmark bipartisan legislation passed last year, the VA MISSION Act, to ensure that veterans don’t have to wait months for health care, among other important reforms. The $220.2 billion proposed for VA would also fund a new electronics system to integrate health care records between the VA and the Defense Department, a key to improving medical service for veterans.
In Rep. Graves’ response to the budget plan, he said: “I am ready to get to work with my colleagues to deliver solutions and responsible policies that allow for American business owners, working families and consumers to thrive.” His objective is certainly laudable, but unfortunately he and his Republican colleagues face the Democrat majority in the House that has its own tax-andspend agenda and fierce opposition to Trump’s proposed cuts to social programs — labeled “malicious” by Democrat Rep. John Yarmuth of Kentucky, chair of the House budget committee.
So the battle is joined and the outlook is not good for a reasonable outcome before another impasse produces another partial government shutdown.
The American people deserve far better than this.
Contact Don McKee at dmckee9613@aol.com.