WASHINGTON, March 12: President Donald Trump’s $4.7 trillion budget request proposes steep cuts to domestic spending, a funding boost for the Pentagon and $8.6 billion for his signature border wall with Mexico. Leading Democrats immediately rejected the plan, signaling another bruising fight just weeks after a standoff that led to a 35-day partial government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history.
A look at the highlights from the White House proposal:
BORDER WALL FIGHT RENEWED
Trump’s proposal for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 includes $8.6 billion to build the U.S-Mexico border wall. The proposal shows Trump is eager to renew his confrontation with Congress over the wall, a centerpiece of his agenda that congressional Democrats have staunchly resisted.
The budget request for more than 300 miles (480 kilometers) of new border wall would more than double the $8.1 billion potentially available to the president for the wall after Trump declared a national emergency at the border last month. The politically contentious declaration would circumvent Congress, though there’s no guarantee Trump will be able to use the money in the face of a legal challenge from California and other states. Lawmakers from both parties oppose the emergency declaration, but Congress appears to lack a veto-proof margin to block Trump.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Trump “was forced to admit defeat” after Congress refused to fund the wall in the current budget, and they predicted a similar outcome if he continues to press for money for the wall. Money targeted for the wall “would be better spent on rebuilding America,” they said.
The budget asks Congress to set up a fund of up to $2 billion to pay for sheltering migrant children who arrive with their families or alone at the U.S. border.
Major highlights of substitution budget introduced by Finance M...
BIG BOOST FOR DEFENSE, CUTS IN DOMESTIC SPENDING
Trump’s budget proposes increasing defense spending to $750 billion — and building the new Space Force as a military branch — while reducing nondefense accounts by 5 percent. The $2.7 trillion in proposed domestic spending cuts over the next decade is higher than any administration in history. Proposed cuts include economic safety-net programs used by millions of Americans.
To stay within prescribed budget caps, the proposal shifts about $165 billion in defense spending to an overseas contingency fund, an action that critics view as an accounting gimmick.
The head of the American Federation of Government Employees, J. David Cox, called the budget “a kick in the teeth” to federal workers who’ve endured years of pay freezes and benefits cuts and just emerged from the 35-day partial shutdown. The proposal “shows a complete disconnect with the needs of the civil servants who are America’s workforce,” Cox said.
ENVIRONMENTAL SPENDING SLASHED
Trump again is asking Congress to slash funding for the Environmental Protection Agency by about a third, a request that Congress has previously rejected. The budget request seeks $6.1 billion for the EPA, down 31 percent from current spending. The White House says it aims to ensure clean air and water and chemical safety, while “reducing regulatory burden and eliminating lower-priority activities.”
But Ken Cook of the Environmental Working Group says it would work to appease Trump’s political base and boost the fossil fuel and chemical industries.
The budget would kill the federal tax credit for electric vehicles among a range of energy-related tax changes. Republicans have launched several efforts to end the $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles, which is already set to phase out for several automakers. The plan is unlikely to win approval in the Democratic-controlled House.
REPEALING OBAMACARE — AGAIN
The budget request would reopen two health care battles Trump already lost in his first year in office: repealing “Obamacare” and limiting future federal spending on Medicaid for low-income people. Under the budget, major sections of both the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid would be turned over to the states starting in 2021.
With Democrats in charge of the House, Trump’s grand plan has no chance of being enacted. And few Republican lawmakers want to be dragged into another health care fight.
EDUCATION CUT, SCHOOL CHOICE EXPANDED
The budget request would cut Education Department funding by 10 percent while expanding money for school choice, school safety and apprenticeship programs. The $64 billion proposal would eliminate 29 programs, including a $2 billion program meant to help schools improve instruction and a $1.2 billion program to create community centers.
Meanwhile, it would add $60 million for charter schools and $200 million for school safety initiatives.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says the plan would end programs better handled at the state or local level. She also proposed up to $5 billion in federal tax credits to support school choice scholarships.
MORE CHOICE FOR VETERANS
The White House is seeking just over $93 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs, an increase of $6.5 billion from current spending.
The request would support implementation of a law Trump signed last year to give veterans more freedom to see doctors outside the troubled VA system, a major shift aimed at reducing wait times and improving care by steering more patients to the private sector. The plan again targets reducing veteran suicides as a top priority and sets aside $4.3 billion to improve the department’s computer system and website.
