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 defense and security spending.
The president’s fiscal 2018 budget request, which will be formally delivered 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 percent reduction below fiscal 2016 levels that mainly targets international aid and development assistance; the Environmental Protection Agency would face a 30 percent 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. “If he said it in the campaign, it’s in the budget.”
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.
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 last year by the conservative Heritage Foundation. 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 accompanying the budget. “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, a partial budget request that presidents typically release in their first months in office, 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. That is to come as part of a larger document in May.