Trump's Budget Will Slash $1.7 Trillion In
Entitlements, Cut Food Stamps By 25%
by Tyler Durden
More details from President Donald Trump�s
first budget proposal are trickling out via
a flurry of overnight reports from The Washington
Post, Associated Press and Bloomberg News.
Here are some of the highlights from the latest
batch of trial balloons:
The budget will slash $1.7 trillion in spending
on entitlement programs, according to Bloomberg.
Trump�s budget will include a massive nearly
$200 billion cut to the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program, the modern version of
food stamps, over the next 10 years � what
amounts to a 25% reduction, according to The
Washington Post.
The food stamp cuts are part of a broader
$274 billion welfare-reform effort, according
to a report by The Associated Press.
The budget calls for about $800 billion in
cuts to Medicaid for fiscal year 2018, WaPo
reported.
The budget also calls for $2.6 billion in
border security spending, $1.6 billion of
which will be earmarked for Trump�s proposed
wall along the U.S.�s southern border.
The budget is also expected to propose major
domestic discretionary spending cuts - an
earlier version of the budget called for $54
billion in such cuts next year alone.
Predictably, Democrats are already up in arms
over the proposal, even though a formal draft
isn�t expected until Tuesday.
In a statement cited by Bloomberg, New York
Senator Senator Chuck Schumer clumsily compared
Trump�s campaign rhetoric to a �Trojan
Horse.�
�This budget continues to reveal President
Trump�s true colors: His populist campaign
rhetoric was just a Trojan horse to execute
long-held, hard-right policies that benefit
the ultra-wealthy at the expense of the middle
class,� Bloomberg noted.
Well, at least Trump didn't promise that if
Americans liked their healthcare plan, they
can keep it.
To be sure, Republicans have also expressed
some discomfort with the cuts, particularly
Trump�s plan to whack $54 billion in discretionary
spending.
Mitch McConnell even told Bloomberg that Congressional
Republicans would ultimately end up writing
their own budget, the same way Senate Republicans
are rewriting Obamacare repeal.
Trump has promised to balance the federal
government�s budget in 10 years, though,
as Democrats have noted, the projection is
dependent on economic growth accelerating
to 3% following the passage of massive tax
cuts, and no recession over the next decade,
a rather bold assumption.
Meanwhile, growth collapsed to an annualized
rate of just 0.7% in the fist quarter, the
slowest rate in three years, while loan demand
has plunged to the lowest level in 6 years.
Meanwhile, the Committee for a Responsible
Federal Budget claims that rather than reining
it in our national debt, Trump's tax cuts
would make the debt much worse.
