Plans for radical cuts in Trump’s budget

US President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday proposed a $163bn (R3-trillion) cut to federal spending next year, which would eliminate more than a fifth of the non-military spending, excluding mandatory benefit programmes.

The proposed budget would raise defence spending 13% and homeland security spending nearly 65% from 2025 enacted levels. Non-defence discretionary spending would be cut 23% to the lowest level since 2017, the White House office of management and budget (OMB) said in a statement.

The so-called skinny budget is an outline of administration priorities that will give Republican appropriators in Congress a blueprint to begin crafting spending bills. As Trump’s first budget since reclaiming office, it sets out to make good on his promises to boost spending on the armed forces and border security, while slashing the federal bureaucracy.

“At this critical moment, we need a historic budget — one that ends the funding of our decline, puts Americans first, and delivers unprecedented support to our military and homeland security,” OMB director Russ Vought said in the statement.

The federal government has a growing $36-trillion debt pile, and some fiscal conservatives and budget experts worry Trump’s tax-cut bill will add to it without sufficient spending cuts. Trump is pushing the Republican-controlled Congress to extend the 2017 tax cuts that were his major legislative achievement in his first term, which non-partisan forecasters say could add $5-trillion to the nation’s debt.

The annual White House budget request includes economic forecasts, as well as detailed proposals about how much money should be spent by every government agency for the fiscal year that starts on October 1.

Outlays in fiscal 2024 amounted to $6.8-trillion, according to the congressional budget office.

Legislators often make substantial changes in the White House’s budget request. But Trump commands unusual sway over this Republican-controlled Congress.

Republicans hope to enact the tax cut bill by July 4, and are working to bridge internal divisions to pay for it. They may have to factor in growing stress in the US economy from Trump’s tariff hikes.

The proposal furthers Trump’s promise to greatly diminish the US department of education, OMB said, while preserving funding for low-income families’ children.

“Trump’s days of pretending to be a populist are over,” said Sen Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat. “His policies are nothing short of an all-out assault on hardworking Americans. As he guts health care, slashes education and hollows out programmes families rely on, he’s bankrolling tax breaks for billionaires …”

The budget calls for an additional $500m in discretionary spending to bolster border security and aid Trump’s push for mass deportations, as well as $766m to procure border security technology funding.

Reuters