Trump’s $4.8-trillion budget likely to get thumbs down from Congress
WASHINGTON • President Donald Trump’s $4.8-trillion budget plan for the coming fiscal year drew a prompt rejection on Monday from congressional Democrats, who said it betrayed his promise to protect popular health and safety-net programs.
The budget would fund the Republican president’s top priorities, including construction of a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico, while cutting billions of dollars from safety net programs under the banner of welfare reform.
The budget is largely a political document that serves as a starting point for negotiations with Congress. With an eye toward reducing debt and deficits, Trump once again proposed steep cuts to housing, environmental, transportation and other programs that have been rejected by lawmakers in past years.
Democrats said Trump’s latest proposal upended his promise in last week’s State of the Union speech to “always protect” the popular Social Security pension plan and the Medicare health plan for seniors.
“Everyone knows the latest Trump budget is dead on arrival in Congress,” Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, said in a statement. “It’s merely a political stunt to gratify extremists in his party.”
Trump’s budget would reduce Medicare spending by lowering drug costs and tighten eligibility requirements for Social Security’s disability program.
It also would enact new work requirements for people who get food stamps or use the Medicaid health plan for the poor.
Last year Trump signed a two- year budget deal with Congress that increased federal spending on defence and several other domestic programs, adding to a growing government debt.
Trump’s proposed military spending adheres to that plan, but his proposed spending for domestic agencies, like the Education Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, is six per cent below the $635 billion outlined in that agreement.
The budget forecasts $4.6 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years and assumes economic growth at an annual rate of roughly three per cent for years to come. The Congressional Budget Office predicts the U.S. economy will grow 2.2 per cent in the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, and grow less than 2.0 per cent in the years to come.