So between now until May when a full version of POTUS Donnie’s first budget is defined, Media and experts will have to dissect and bicker over the abbreviated version; Military, Homeland Security and the Wall get $ while EPA, Energy, Education and State Depts get cut. Hey wait State Dept? They better not be cutting Embassy security cost – PB/TK
Trump’s budget delivers red meat to GOP base – By Nancy Cook 03/15/17
President Donald Trump’s first budget proposal this week will be like many of his policy ideas so far — big on showmanship and playing to his base, short on details.
The blueprint is expected to call for taking an ax to programs and agencies that Republicans love to hate like EPA, Energy, Interior, State, HUD and Commerce; foreign aid; the federal workforce; and Education and Labor training programs, while boosting defense spending by roughly $54 billion — and that covers only so-called discretionary spending, which accounts for just a third of the federal government’s budget.
Agencies that are expected to see boosts include the FBI and Homeland Security, including Customs and Border Protection, since they will be crucial to carrying out the administration’s travel ban policy and the building of the so-far hypothetical wall with Mexico.
Other agencies will see anywhere from a 15- to 20-percent cut, said one policy expert on the transition team — with the EPA seeing a proposed cut north of 25 percent. “I am looking to see who is being protected,” said one source from Trump’s presidential transition team who worked on policy issues. “Other than that, I don’t expect to learn much more from the budget.”
Yet none of this may matter to Trump’s base, who elected him based on his promise to upend Washington and dismantle the federal government. Voters rarely want to sweat all of the details; they want action. And Trump’s budget will offer that reward by pinpointing the winners and losers within the federal bureaucracy in broad strokes, according to transition sources.
Yet none of this may matter to Trump’s base, who elected him based on his promise to upend Washington and dismantle the federal government. Voters rarely want to sweat all of the details; they want action. And Trump’s budget will offer that reward by pinpointing the winners and losers within the federal bureaucracy in broad strokes, according to transition sources.
Most agency cuts are expected to lack specificity, transition sources said; they will require each Cabinet secretary to find savings by eliminating programs, cutting the workforce or both.
The exception may be swaths of the EPA, Commerce, State and Energy departments, where the budget is expected to call for the wholesale elimination of programs involving solar energy, biofuels or anything that looks like the government propping up one sector over another, an idea that’s anathema to conservatives.
“Foreign aid is a complete waste of money,” said Stephen Moore, a senior economist at the Heritage Foundation who worked on the budget draft during Trump’s presidential campaign. Moore stressed that he had not seen the final blueprint. That document is being so closely held that even political appointees at various agencies have not seen it.
“Foreign aid is a complete waste of money,” said Stephen Moore, a senior economist at the Heritage Foundation who worked on the budget draft during Trump’s presidential campaign. Moore stressed that he had not seen the final blueprint. That document is being so closely held that even political appointees at various agencies have not seen it.
The White House plans to release a fuller version of its budget sometime in May.
Continue to politico.com article: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/trump-budget-cuts-spending-236101
