Trump budget prizes military buildup and sweeping cuts

President Donald Trump on Thursday unveiled the first portion of his fiscal 2018 budget request, a discretionary spending plan that includes new funds for a major military buildup and severe cuts to federal agencies certain to be strongly resisted by lawmakers on both sides.

“This is clear what’s happening”.

The cash for the wall would be on top of an additional $1.5 billion the White House wants from Congress this year, bringing Trump’s total funding request to $4.1 billion for the wall so far, a fraction of the estimated $12 billion-$38 billion cost for the project.

Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.), chair of the House Budget Committee said, “I appreciate the White House’s submission on how we can be better stewards of taxpayer dollars and strengthen our national security”, and added, “We look forward to continuing our discussions with the White House, with our committee members and with the full House as we work towards introducing the Fiscal Year 2018 budget”.

Now his budget turns those words into numbers, said Mick Mulvaney, the White House budget director. “This would result in approximately 3,200 fewer positions at the agency”, according to the proposal.

While it targets Democratic priorities like housing, community development and the environment, it also would slash GOP sacred cows like aid to rural schools and subsidized airline service to Trump strongholds, and it would raise fees on participants in the federal flood insurance program.

The president’s blueprint would eliminate funding for popular regional programs, including the $300 million Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which Congress authorized last year, and a large Chesapeake Bay cleanup project, which receives $73 million each year. Overall he is cutting EPA funding by 31 percent. The greatest threats to the United States, he says, are those presented by infectious diseases, climate change, and energy production – which can not be addressed effectively without scientific research.

“If [Trump] said it on the campaign, it’s in the budget”, said Mick Mulvaney, Director of the USA executive branch Office of Management and Budget, in a press briefing on yesterday.

An EPA spokeswoman said the focus for the agency has not changed, only how to achieve its mission.

“Federal civilian employment is about the same number today as it was in 1962 under President John F. Kennedy”, O’Grady said, explaining it is the number of contracted workers, not staffers, which has swelled.

“This is a program that is already a bit on life support, so to take another third out of it is really quite harmful”, said Ken Kimmell, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, which advocates for science-based solutions to problems.

What should be more worrying for Trump is that his moves will give more power to the Chinese and Russian governments who will also have time to catch up.

Republicans have criticized the EPA for regulations that they think are overly aggressive. They are not working contrary to the states; they are working to provide levels of expertise that no state can afford to have and no state actual has.

Boffins are anxious that the Trump administration’s stance will jeopardise USA leadership in fields ranging from climate science to cancer biology. We do the big technical issues.

Trump’s cuts would leave the EPA hard put to mount that kind of emergency response when the next disaster strikes – in our state or any other.

Browner and McCarthy found some hope in the fact that the budget that is eventually adopted will likely be very different than the proposal. The budget is one of the “skinniest” first budget documents in history and experts predict many of its short-on-policy-detail proposals will not sit well with Congress.