The Trump administration on Tuesday will propose the deepest cuts to government programs in a generation, delivering the opening salvo in a new round of budget battles in Washington.
The proposal, titled “A New Foundation for American Greatness” and set for release at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, sets out a 10-year plan to balance the budget.
It relies on a mix of cuts to anti-poverty programs, optimistic economic forecasting and deep cuts to nondefense discretionary funding to meet its targets. It would not touch Social Security and Medicare, which President Trump promised to leave alone during his campaign.
The budget would dramatically shift spending to the Pentagon from domestic programs.
In 2018, it would shift $54 billion from nondefense discretionary spending to defense by enacting major cuts to the State Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Agriculture and other agencies.
It would eliminate or phase out funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and theNational Endowment for the Arts.
In subsequent years, that shift between defense and nondefense discretionary spending would grow to the point where defense spending would make up two-thirds of discretionary domestic spending, a huge shift from the 50-50 split of today.
By 2027, the Pentagon would continue to benefit from increased annual spending, while nondefense discretionary spending would be $260 billion less than what would be spent without Trump’s budget.
A sizable portion of the cuts to domestic spending would be made to Medicaid.
The budget assumes full passage of the House-passed version of the American Health Care Act (AHCA) to repeal and replace ObamaCare, which cuts $839 billion from Medicaid and pulls funding from Planned Parenthood.
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/334662-trump-seeks-historic-cuts-to-government
I hear a chainsaw! I hope this includes a massive downsizing of federal employees as well
