President Donald Trump is proposing historically deep budget cuts that would touch almost every federal agency and program and dramatically reorder government priorities to boost defence and security spending.
The president’s fiscal 2018 budget request, which will be delivered on Thursday to Congress, would slash or eliminate many of the Great Society programs that Republicans have for decades tried to peel back while showering the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security with new resources.
Some of the deepest cuts are reserved for the agencies and programs Trump has often derided. The State Department would be hit with a 28 per cent reduction below fiscal 2016 levels that mainly targets international aid and development assistance; the Environmental Protection Agency would face a 30 per cent reduction. Also in the crosshairs are agriculture programs, clean energy projects and federal research funding.
“You see reductions in many agencies as he tries to shrink the role of government, drive efficiencies, go after waste, duplicative programs,” Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told reporters on Wednesday.
Lawmakers Resist
Trump’s proposal for $1.15 trillion in federal discretionary funding for fiscal year 2018 is certain to face vigorous opposition from lawmakers in both parties who will resist chopping favored programs, whether foreign aid, rural water projects, or development grants for Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta. In addition to a solid wall of opposition from Democrats, senior Republicans including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have raised objections to specific agency cuts even before the budget request went to the Capitol.
Trump’s aim and plan for a bigger military explained
The proposal codifies Trump’s “America First” approach to governance – the budget document was even titled with the campaign slogan – and underscores his priorities to allies in Congress in a document that bears close resemblance to a proposal put forward. It would provide a promised increase in military spending without expanding the deficit.
“To keep Americans safe, we have made the tough choices that have been put off for too long,” Trump said in a statement. “But we have also made the necessary investments that are long overdue.”
The blueprint doesn’t include answers to some of the biggest outstanding questions about Trump’s plans. The document doesn’t account for his proposals to cut taxes, resolve internal Republican disputes over entitlement spending, or reveal what the White House forecasts for economic growth.
The calculations in this article are based on the enacted spending levels for fiscal 2016, the last year for which the government was fully funded. The government is operating now on stopgap funding in fiscal 2017 that only runs through April 28. The calculations in the White House request assume Congress will extend spending at the same levels through the end of the fiscal year on September 30. As lawmakers negotiate that package at the end of next month, the numbers for some agencies may change.
Although Trump’s budget would decrease total discretionary spending 1 per cent from fiscal 2016 – the last full-year spending legislation passed by Congress – it doesn’t substantially change the outlook for the deficit. The Congressional Budget Office projects the fiscal 2018 shortfall will be $487 billion.
Nine federal departments would see their budgets slashed by between 11 per cent and 29 per cent.
Funding for the Department of Health and Human Services would be slashed by $19.5 billion, the State Department would see its budget cut $10.8 billion, the Labor Department would incur a $2.6 billion paring, and the Department of Agriculture would see reductions of $7.3 billion. Each represents a more than 20 per cent cut compared to the last full fiscal year under President Barack Obama.
By contrast, the Pentagon would see a $52.3 billion – or 10 per cent – increase, with the Department of Homeland Security’s $3 billion hike representing a more than 7 per cent increase. Due to deep domestic cuts, the explosive growth of the president’s security budget won’t increase the baseline deficit projection for the coming year.
Congress will need to agree to a stopgap spending gap before then to avoid a shutdown of most of the federal government.
Also $1.5 billion would be used for a pilot program examining different ways to construct the president’s proposed border wall with Mexico. That amount would increase to $2.6 billion over the full 2018 fiscal year.
Trump promised to make Mexico pay for a wall, but no one in the administration has spelled out how the Mexican government – which staunchly opposes picking up the tab – could be compelled to do so. Mulvaney acknowledged the administration would initially be asking the US Treasury to foot the bill.
Congressional Input
As details of the budget blueprint leaked out, Republican spending panel members made clear that they, rather than Trump, would be shaping the bills needed to fund government.
Among the winners in the budgeting process were school choice programs in the Department of Education budget - which saw $1.4 billion in new spending for school choice programs - as well as the Department of Veterans Affairs, where a $7.3 billion increase would expand a program allowing eligible veterans to seek private health care.
Trump’s budget also proposes privatising the federal air traffic control system, authorising a multi-year program to create an independent non-governmental organization to manage the nation’s 14,500 air traffic controllers.
With the president’s blueprint facing a steep climb on Capitol Hill, attention will likely shift to which elements of the package are taken up by congressional Republicans.
