Trump’s First Budget Boosts Military, Cuts Domestic Programs

President Donald Trump has finalized his first budget for the federal government. To be submitted to Congress on Thursday, it was widely expected to cause political pain for Republicans and Democrats, who will have the final say on spending in the arduous budget process.

Republicans have groused about some of the preliminary plans, including elimination of the $3 billion community development block grant program that’s popular among local GOP officials; a 25 percent cut to the EPA and elimination of 3,000 jobs; and the scuttling, essentially, of a $300 million per-year program to clean up the Great Lakes.

Democrats are unlikely to support the cuts, and Republican defections raise the possibility of a congressional train wreck and a potential government shutdown when the 2018 budget year begins Oct. 1.

The budget, known as a “skinny budget,” was unlikely to have many of the details expected on Capitol Hill. It will be limited to the discretionary, $1 trillion-plus portion of the $4 trillion annual federal budget that pays for Cabinet agencies and departments.

The remainder of Trump’s budget — proposals on taxes, mandatory spending and deficits and projections on the economy — won’t come out until May.

This article appeared in print on page 2 of the March 16th, 2017 edition of Hamodia.