'Shrink'
government: Trump's budget reduces spending by $4.4 trillion, makes 2017 tax
cuts permanent
President Trump is proposing to balance the
federal budget within 15 years, “shrink” the federal government and extend food
stamp work requirements to Medicaid and housing programs in a $4.8 trillion
spending plan being released Monday.
The plan would reduce spending by $4.4 trillion equally from
discretionary and mandatory programs such as Medicare over the next decade.
The plan also includes $2 billion for the border wall, with
officials saying the administration is approaching 80% of the money needed to
finish the wall.
The president’s budget for fiscal 2021 would cut foreign aid by
21% and reduce the Environmental Protection Agency’s funding by 26% while
targeting the Education Department for smaller cuts.
Among the agencies receiving spending increases would be the
Department of Homeland Security (up 3%), the Defense Department (up 0.3% to
$740.5 billion), NASA (up 12%) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (up 13%).
The Commerce Department budget would be cut by 37%. Officials
largely attribute that reduction to completion of the census. The Department of
Housing and Urban Development is slated for a cut of 15% in a proposal that
includes $2.8 billion for homelessness assistance grants.
Spending for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
would be cut 9%, and $4.3 billion would be targeted for battling infectious
diseases.
Overall, nondefense spending would be cut 5% to $590 billion,
below the level the White House and congressional Democrats agreed to in the
current two-year budget deal.
Senior administration officials who gave a preview to The
Washington Times and other news outlets said the election-year proposal is
aimed partly at the perception that Mr. Trump hasn’t tried to curtail
federal spending, with annual deficits rising to more than $1 trillion in his
first term.
“We’re trying to make the case that the president cares about
spending and has cared about spending,” a senior administration official said.
“He’s been doing this since his very first budget. This is now the fourth
budget. Many of these [spending] reforms have been in each and every one of
them. We do need Congress. Congress has not been there.”
The plan also provides a stark contrast with leading Democratic
presidential candidates’ campaign priorities, such as “Medicare-for-All” and
free college tuition, which would likely require significant tax increases.
“We’re going to have a national election that will hopefully
decide that Congress is going to be on the side of the American people along
with other taxpayers who balance their family budgets,” the senior official
said. “We’re making the argument that deficit reduction is really important.”
The plan to reach a balanced budget relies on an optimistic
economic forecast of 3% annual growth, significantly faster than the 2.3% rate
in 2019.
Officials said about half of the proposed savings over a decade
would come from reforms or from eliminating programs deemed wasteful in
entitlements such as Medicaid and Social Security. They said benefits won’t be
affected and that the savings would come from cutting waste and from other
savings such as lowering prescription drug prices under Medicare ($130
billion).
Savings of $292 billion would come from reforming Medicaid and
other safety net programs, for example by eliminating improper payments to
people who have died. Spending on Medicare and Medicaid would still increase.
“The president is proposing more mandatory savings and reforms
than any other president in history,” an official said. “He does protect Social
Security and Medicare beneficiaries in those programs; he totally meets that
commitment.”
The president tweeted on Saturday, “We will not be touching your
Social Security or Medicare in Fiscal 2021 Budget. Only the Democrats will
destroy them by destroying our Country’s greatest ever Economy!”
In the past two years, Congress has provided only $2.65 billion
for the border wall out of the $18 billion the administration said it needed.
Mr. Trump declared a state of
emergency in February 2019 to move money from military construction projects
and counter-narcotics programs to get more money. The administration has
shifted $6.7 billion from those programs and plans to divert another $7.2
billion this year.
“We are in a pretty good place with regard to the main, most
critical features of the wall being fully resourced as of right now,” a senior
official said. “We will ask for another $2 billion just to keep the work going.
We’re approaching 80% of the wall that will eventually be built being fully
resourced.”
The proposal would save taxpayers $300 billion over 10 years by
expanding the 20-hour-per-week work requirement for food stamp recipients to
Medicaid and housing programs, plus expanding it in the food stamp program,
officials said.
The administration said in a statement that part of the spending
plan involves “shrinking the federal government to its proper size” by calling
for overall reductions of about 2%.
Deficits have risen each year under Mr. Trump, who came into office
criticizing former President Barack Obama for failing to get government
borrowing under control and pledging that he would balance the budget himself
in eight years.
When Mr. Obama left office, the annual deficit was down to about
$585 billion after three consecutive $1 trillion deficits at the start of his
presidency.
After Mr. Trump took office, the deficit
rose to $665 billion in fiscal 2017. It climbed to $779 billion in fiscal 2018,
which was 3.8% of gross domestic product. In 2019, it rose to $984 billion, or
4.6% of GDP.
The trend continued in the wrong direction in the first three
months of fiscal 2020 as the deficit widened to $356.6 billion and was on pace
to exceed $1 trillion by the end of the year.
The fiscal 2021 budget proposal would trim the deficit to $966
billion next year and eliminate annual deficits by 2035, a senior
administration official said.
Mr. Trump threatened to veto a
massive spending bill in March 2018 that he said included unnecessary extras
added by Democrats. He said he acquiesced because the measure was vital to
rebuilding the military, but he warned that he wouldn’t tolerate such
wastefulness going forward.
He fought with Democrats into a government shutdown in late 2018
over funding for the border wall.
In August, Mr. Trump struck a sweeping two-year
spending deal with Democrats that lifted the nation’s borrowing limit through
July 2021, raised spending by more than $320 billion and put off the next
potential fight over spending until after the November elections. That deal is
projected to add nearly $2 trillion in debt over the next decade.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat whose troops
have teamed up with Mr. Trump to increase deficit levels,
said the president has no credibility on fiscal responsibility. They point to
the 2017 tax cuts that passed with no Democratic votes.
“During the eight years of President Obama’s presidency, he
reduced the deficit by $1 trillion,” Mrs. Pelosi said last week. “Instead, this
administration … increased the national debt by $2 trillion.”
Comments
These are
easy cuts. The federal bureaucracy is finally undergoing a review based on
costs that can replace headcount with better automated systems and reduce
duplication.
In
addition, there are unnecessary, unconstitutional government programs and
subsidies that are rife with fraud, waste, inefficiency and duplication. The
elimination of illegal welfare migrants and deep state bureaucrats is long
overdue and will reduce spending by $billions.
Obama
actually doubled the national debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion. The US
jobs created after 2008 were all government jobs and low wage jobs that all
went to low skilled refugees and immigrants. Obama’s Quantitative Easing just
funded banks who lent to “day traders” to recover stock prices to pre-2008
levels.
Trump is
increasing higher skilled, higher wage jobs to raise household incomes and
rebuild the US middle class. The Trump Agenda to cut corporate taxes and
regulations has delivered a 50% increase in stocks. Trump’s bi-lateral trade
agreements using Tariffs has reversed the US trade deficit.
Norb Leahy,
Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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