White House Proposes $4.4 Trillion Budget That Adds $7 Trillion to Deficits
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVISFEB. 12, 2018
President Trump’s budget proposal was delivered to the Capitol on Monday. The plan discards longtime Republican orthodoxy about balancing the budget, instead embracing last year’s $1.5 trillion tax cut and new spending on a major infrastructure initiative. Credit Eric Thayer for The New York Times
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Monday sent Congress a $4.4 trillion budget with steep cuts in domestic programs and entitlements, including Medicare, and large increases for the military, envisioning deficits totaling at least $7.1 trillion over the next decade.
The blueprint, which has little to no chance of being enacted as written, amounts to a vision statement by Mr. Trump, whose plan discards longtime Republican orthodoxy about balancing the budget, instead embracing last year’s $1.5 trillion tax cut and new spending on a major infrastructure initiative.
The plan does not completely embrace the two-year budget deal struck by Congress and signed by Mr. Trump last week to boost both domestic and military spending by $300 billion. Mick Mulvaney, Mr. Trump’s budget director, informed House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, in a letter that the president is proposing to pour much of the increased domestic spending in that package into defense and fixing “some longtime budget gimmicks” that have added to the nation’s deficits.
“The administration does not believe these nondefense spending levels comport with its vision for the proper role and size of the federal government,” Mr. Mulvaney wrote.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/12/us/politics/white-house-budget-congress.html?emc=edit_na_20180212&nl=breaking-news&nlid=57435284&ref=cta
