Trump’s new budget slashes spending, asks $8.6B for border wall

President Trump’s new budget calls for slashing domestic spending by 5 percent and boosting defense spending by 5 percent while asking for an additional $8.6 billion to build a wall on the southern border.

The president unveiled his $4.7 trillion “Budget for a Better America” for 2020 Monday morning.

A senior Trump administration official said the White House had to take drastic action because of the $22 trillion national debt and because the interest on that debt is now $400 billion and in five years will exceed military spending.

The official claimed the president’s $1.5 trillion tax-cut package, which added more than $1 trillion to the national debt in the last year, has increased revenues.

“So we have a real problem that is not a result of our economic policies. In fact, our economic policies have led to an increasing level of revenue and will over the next 10 years. This budget will have more reductions in spending than any president in history has ever proposed,” the official said.

The administration will also seek to make the tax cuts permanent.

Defense spending will increase to $750 billion as the administration proposes steep cuts in the safety net programs.

“We have significant reforms to the welfare system that will generate $327 billion, which will include a work requirement that will be expanded not just to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, but to the SNAP program, food stamps, Medicaid and housing programs and it will come along with it a hardship exemption,” the administration official said. “But for the individuals between 18 and 65 years old, we will expect them to either work, be engaged in job training or have community engagement.”

By cutting spending by $2.7 trillion over 10 years, the Trump administration said it would shrink the deficit to less than 1 percent of the gross domestic product by 2029 and balance the federal budget within 15 years.

The budget also proposed a $50 billion school choice initiative to provide federal tax credits to nonprofit organizations at the state level for public and private school choice.

It will propose $200 billion in infrastructure spending, as well as other initiatives to lower the costs of drugs.

The budget will set off a battle with Congress, with the Democratic-controlled House likely rejecting the spending plan.

The White House and Congress must agree on the plan by Oct. 1 to avert a government shutdown.

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