President Trump to submit budget with $54B defense increase

It would call for cutting off funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting – a favorite Republican target.

The president’s annual wish list known as the “skinny budget” – which still has to go through the gargantuan approval process – does have some telling nuggets about where the White House would like to shift funds.

That strategy – fund now, figure out the rest later – has raised some eyebrows across party lines in Congress. Democrats have threatened to take the government to the brink of a partial shutdown, if necessary, to block wall funding. Some of the proposed changes, which Democrats will broadly oppose, have been targeted for decades by conservative Republicans.

Trump is willing to discuss priorities, said White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, a former SC congressman who made a name for himself as a spending hawk before Trump plucked him for his Cabinet. Mulvaney told reporters Wednesday that this money will provide for a couple of “pilot cases” to see what kind of wall structure is most cost-efficient and effective. “We’ll pass the budget”, he said. Trump said repeatedly during the campaign that Mexico would pay for that project, but Mexico has said no.

NASA would receive a less than 1 percent cut under the budget.

Trump’s Administration is working to dramatically roll back the regulatory state, as well as a host of grant programs that either don’t jibe with Trump’s policy positions or that the White House believes to be unnecessary. Mulvaney acknowledged the proposal would likely result in significant cuts to the federal workforce.

Another Freedom Caucus member, Representative David Schweikert of Arizona, said Mulvaney was encouraging lawmakers to submit maverick fiscal ideas to the White House.

“This is a budget blueprint, not a complete budget”, said Trump’s budget director Mick Mulvaney, ahead of its release, promising a full buffet of data, forecasts, and details in the full budget in mid-May.

The Department of Veterans Affairs gets an additional $4.4 billion, a 5.9 percent increase.

The proposal will call for a $54 billion increase in defense spending that would be offset by cuts to other parts of the government.

Trump has promised a spending plan that fulfills his campaign promises to boost national security, from spending more on defense to building a wall along the U.S. -Mexico border.

Mulvaney also preemptively addressed questions about the cost of the wall and how many miles could be paid for by the requested sum, pointing to the still-uncertain plans for its construction. The White House is also considering cuts to the Coast Guard, TSA and FEMA, as well, as grants to local and state governments that rely on federal funding.

The State Department faces the next largest cut of a 28 percent reduction, including a 35 percent cut to Treasury International Programs.

The budget shrinks spending for the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, but Mulvaney maintains that these agencies will still be able to perform their key functions.

More than 3,000 Environmental Protection Agency workers would lose their jobs and programmes such as Mr Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which would tighten regulations on emissions from power plants seen as contributing to global warming, would be eliminated.

Trump also aims to eliminate over 50 EPA programs with the Energy Star program, which aims to improve energy efficiency, and save consumers’ money; discontinue funding for worldwide climate change programs; cut funding for the Office of Research and Development in half; and also cut funding for the Superfund cleanup program and the Office of Enforcement and Compliance.

Cuts to other departments would also end foreign assistance programmes. Trump has vowed not to cut Social Security and Medicare and is dead set against raising taxes.