Trump’s OMB, led by Mick Mulvaney, has unveiled a $4 trillion dollar budget proposal that Democrats absolutely hate.
Here’s the lowdown on the budget:
Romina Boccia at Heritage has this to say about the cuts in the budget and how it attempts to balance the budget in 10 years:
The president’s budget seeks to balance in no more than 10 years. This is a laudable and important goal that fiscal conservatives should keep their eye on. The budget does this in part with sensible mandatory spending reforms to Medicaid, welfare and disability programs. This budget proposal also follows the right approach on discretionary spending, by prioritizing national defense in a fiscally responsible way, with offsetting cuts to domestic programs that are redundant, improper, or otherwise wasteful. As is so often the case, however, the devil is in the details. Long-term budget solvency must include reforms to the largest entitlement programs: Medicare and Social Security. These programs alone consume 4 of every 10 federal dollars, and they are expanding. Moreover, this budget would rely on $2 trillion in economic feedback effects for deficit reduction, a figure that is highly uncertain. Greater spending cuts would have lent more fiscal credibility. Overall, this budget takes important strides toward cutting the federal government down to size.
I thought that was fair. She praises the budget for making sensible cuts to some entitlement programs, but pointed out that it’s using fuzzy math when it comes to the money it would get from the economy to help reduce the deficit.
She also hammers the budget for not touching Social Security or Medicare, which is similar to what Ed Morrissey pointed out this morning, that the administration is showing zero courage when it comes to the need to reform the two biggest entitlement programs out there:
Bear in mind that White House budget proposals are almost entirely political documents. Congress creates budgets, not presidents, although presidents have to sign them. These budgets get used to set the tone for the upcoming negotiations on Capitol Hill, and it seems clear that Trump and Mulvaney want to shift the Overton windows on discussions over safety-net programs. Trump’s brash enough to do that and make it work, or so he and Mulvaney believe. Eventually, they will need to show even more leadership and courage, and shift the Overton windows on Medicare and Social Security too — and make it plain that it’s going to cost Democrats in every other budget line item until they accept the need to reform entitlements. Perhaps this is step one in that process.
So they both seem optimistic about the budget overall, but point out that it could be far better.
As for Democrats, they hate the budget, as Pelosi is already calling it ‘literally a killer’:
So if Democrats hate it so, how bad can it really be?