webfact Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 Trump budget seeks 5 percent cut in non-defence spending - OMB By Roberta Rampton FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump listens to questions from reporters about an impending U.S. Government shutdown as he participates in a bill signing ceremony for the “First Step Act” and the “Juvenile Justice Reform Act” in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S., December 21, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will propose in his fiscal 2020 budget on Monday that the U.S. Congress cut non-defence spending by 5 percent while boosting spending on the military, veterans' healthcare and border security, the White House budget office said on Sunday. The Republican president's proposal, slated for release at 11:30 a.m. (1530 GMT) on the Office of Management and Budget's website, is expected to be the first volley in this year's bitter funding fight with Congress, which has control over federal purse strings. His budget blueprint is expected to be rejected by Congress, where Democrats control the House of Representatives. Spending bills typically need 60 votes to get through the 100-member Senate, where Trump's fellow Republicans hold 53 seats. Democratic leaders in both the House and Senate immediately panned Trump's request for $8.6 billion to build a wall on the southern border with Mexico, reported by Reuters earlier on Sunday. Last year, a protracted battle over Trump's demand for more than $5 billion in wall funding led to a five-week partial shutdown of the government. Congress' refusal to grant him the funds led Trump to declare a national emergency so he could redirect funds approved for other purposes to the project. The White House and Congress must agree on funding by Oct. 1 to keep the government funded and open - which coincides with the deadline to lift the debt limit, or risk a default, which would have severe economic repercussions. At the same time, Trump and congressional leaders also face a deadline from a 2011 fiscal belt-tightening law that would see all discretionary spending slashed by $126 billion or 10 percent, unless they agree to lift spending caps. Tax cuts have been a priority for the Republican White House and Congress in recent years, rather than fiscal restraint. The deficit ran to $900 billion in 2019, and the national debt has ballooned to $22 trillion. Trump wants to cut non-defence programme spending by an average of 5 percent below caps that Congress had set for fiscal 2019, the OMB said in a release. “President Trump added nearly $2 trillion to our deficits with tax cuts for the wealthy and large corporations, and now it appears his budget asks the American people to pay the price," said John Yarmuth, Democratic chairman of the House Budget Committee, who added: "It has no chance in the House.” Trump's budget would boost funding for some of his priorities. For example, Trump will propose a 5 percent increase for the Department of Homeland Security to help pay for his border wall and hire more immigration and border enforcement officials. The budget also includes an increase of almost 10 percent for veterans' healthcare programs from last year, and investments in opioid addiction programs, the OMB said. That means some departments and programs may see steeper proposed cuts than 5 percent. BOOST FOR DEFENSE Some programs will be targeted for cancellation altogether to push total non-defence discretionary spending below a cap of $542 billion established in the 2011 Budget Control Act, an administration official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official did not specify which programs would be targeted. "This budget shows that we can return to fiscal sanity without halting our economic resurgence while continuing to invest in critical priorities," Russ Vought, the acting OMB director, said in a statement. The budget was expected to boost defence spending, although details were not immediately available. Vought said last month that new defence spending would be included in the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund, more traditionally used for emergencies. Fiscal hawks have characterized OCO as a slush fund or budget gimmick to get around spending caps. Also unclear is how the budget will handle mandatory spending on programs for seniors like Medicare and Social Security, which account for the largest portion of the budget. The programs are popular with older voters. The OMB said the budget would propose $2.7 trillion in spending cuts over a decade, which it said would be more than any other administration had ever planned. But the cuts would not be enough to balance the budget in that timeframe. The OMB said the budget was designed to balance by 2034, exceeding the traditional 10-year period that previous administrations targeted. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Peter Cooney) -- © Copyright Reuters 2019-03-11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emdog Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 Got to pay for those big cuts to the rich and corporations somehow..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rudi49jr Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 29 minutes ago, Emdog said: Got to pay for those big cuts to the rich and corporations somehow..... And the increase in the defence budget .... And all of Trump's golf trips to Mar-A-Lago .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Srikcir Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 7 hours ago, webfact said: President Donald Trump will propose in his fiscal 2020 budget on Monday that the U.S. Congress cut non-defence spending by 5 percent while boosting spending on the military, veterans' healthcare and border security And if he doesn't get it - another national emergency! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
connda Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 Maybe they can get the Defense Spending up over $1T USD this year. Everything domestic is chopped liver. Forget the citizens, the 'Defense' industry needs transfer payments. Go long Defense stocks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phkauf Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 About F'in time they cut the budgets. If each governmental department cannot find an easy 5% to cut, they should be ashamed of themselves. There is so much waste and inefficiency that a 5% cut is the lowest hanging fruit imaginable. But in typical governmental style, they will cut some high profile programs to rile up the press and opposition. Just like when a municipality is forced to cut, they layoff police or firemen, but keep all the useless relatives with no show jobs on the payroll. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tug Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 You can be sure that whatever cuts they come up with the common man will pay the price not the wealthy all fo an unessary wall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longtom Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 Build some more F-35s, new nukes, a shiny wall. Make cuts on foodstamps, social security and medicare.Yay, way to go, Paul Ryan wold be proud.[emoji48]Sent from my SM-J250F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thakkar Posted March 12, 2019 Share Posted March 12, 2019 On 3/11/2019 at 9:03 AM, webfact said: cut non-defence spending by 5 percent while boosting spending on the military, veterans' healthcare and border security That would be a meaningless pittance in a multi trillion budget if Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are exempt. And Trump promised during the campaign that those would be exempt: Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 5/7/15, 10:38 PM I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid. Huckabee copied me. - Maybe he’ll get the Mexicans to pay for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bristolboy Posted March 13, 2019 Share Posted March 13, 2019 President Donald Trump’s 2020 budget breaks one of his biggest campaign promises to voters: that he would leave Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare untouched. “I’m not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid,” Trump told the Daily Signal, a conservative publication affiliated with the Heritage Foundation, in 2015. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/3/12/18260271/trump-medicaid-social-security-medicare-budget-cuts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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