WASHINGTON U.S.
President Donald Trump wants lawmakers to cut $3.6 trillion in government
spending over the next decade, taking aim in an austere budget unveiled on
Tuesday at healthcare and food assistance programs for the poor while boosting
the military.
The biggest savings
would come from cuts to the Medicaid healthcare program for the poor made as
part of a Republican healthcare bill passed by the House of Representatives.
Trump wants lawmakers to
cut more than $800 billion from Medicaid, and more than $192 billion from food
stamps over a decade. He seeks to balance the budget by the end of the decade,
according to the plan.
The budget is based on
forecasts for economic growth of 3 percent a year by the end of Trump's first
term.
There is some new
spending in Trump's plan for fiscal year 2018, which starts in October. The Pentagon
would get a spending hike, and there would be a $1.6 billion down payment to
begin building a wall along the border with Mexico, which was a central promise
of Trump's presidential campaign.
Trump's proposal
foresees selling half of the U.S. emergency oil stockpile, created in 1975
after the Arab oil embargo caused fears of price spikes.
Republicans are under
pressure to deliver on promised tax cuts, the cornerstone of the Trump
administration's pro-business economic agenda, which would cut the business tax
rate to 15 percent and reduce the number of personal tax brackets.
Mick Mulvaney, Trump's
budget office director, said the plan is the first one in a long time to pay
attention to taxpayers.
“Yes, you have to have
compassion for folks who are receiving the federal funds, but also you have to
have compassion for the folks who are paying it,” he told reporters.
Republican leaders in
the House said lawmakers would be able to find common ground with the budget
plan.
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