Wait?
Didn’t the Republicans led Congress pass a RECORD budget?
Didn’t the same Republicans also pass a tax cut on top of the spending that will CUT the amount of money the government collects?
WE ARE TALKING ABOUT REPUBLICANS!
President Donald Trump on Wednesday instructed federal department leaders to slash 5 percent from their budgets next year, signaling a renewed interest in belt-tightening amid mounting deficits.
“I’m going to ask each of you to come back with a 5 percent cut for our next meeting,” Trump declared at his Cabinet meeting, seated alongside his top officials. “I think you’ll all be able to do it.”
“Some of you will say, ‘Hey, I can do much more than five,’” Trump said, hinting at more drastic cuts for some agencies.
Even the military could see slight cuts from its current budget: Trump said the Pentagon’s budget would “likely be $700 billion,” according to a White House pool report. That would shave off roughly $16 billion, or 2.3 percent, from the Department of Defense, which was recently granted its largest budget since the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Trump’s comments come just days after his own administration reported the U.S. budget deficit reached a six-year high. The budget shortfall for Trump’s first full fiscal year in office totaled $776 billion — 17 percent higher than the previous year.
For the first two years of his presidency, the White House has largely ignored the rising red ink as Trump prioritized a massive military build-up and poured money into campaign promises like funding to fight opioids or boost veterans’ benefits.
“Last year, the first year, I had to do something with the military,” Trump told the Cabinet, justifying a Pentagon budget that has exceeded $700 billion over the last two years.
But after sealing a $300 billion budget deal this spring, administration officials are hinting the second half of Trump’s term could mark a pivot toward budget austerity. Trump will present his next budget request early next year for fiscal 2020.
“As you watch our next budget come out — and you’ll start to see things in the next few weeks — then you’ll see a much more aggressive stance,” said Kevin Hassett, chairman of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, at a panel last week. “The deficit is absolutely higher than anyone would like.”…..
More on the budget cuts which could be far deeper AFTER the midterm election voting is over….
…An across-the-board cut of 5 percent from all discretionary spending likely to be enacted in fiscal 2019 would amount to about $62 billion, not counting money for war-related operations and natural disasters. However politically unpalatable that may be, such cuts could actually understate the depths of reductions the administration may be envisioning.
That’s because if recent history is any guide, the reductions may not come from current spending, but from already depressed fiscal 2020 levels previously laid out in the February budget request. The Obama administration Office of Management and Budget asked agencies to cut their proposed budgets by 5 percent in that fashion on at least four occasions….
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