UN Fires Back after Trump Releases Budget Calling for Funding Cuts

Still, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said he believes the “core diplomatic function” of the department remains intact.

Mulvaney said that the $1.5 billion would be coming from the United States treasury and not Mexico, unlike what Trump said during the campaign.

“There’s no question this is a hard-power budget”, Mulvaney said on MSNBC. Trump’s budget cuts federal government programs like the Environmental Protection Agency would lose 31% of its’ funding.

More than anything, the budget serves as a wish-list and sends a message to voters about a president’s priorities. Senator Lindsey Graham has already said that Trump’s budget will be “dead on arrival” over its drastic cuts to the State Department.

“Discontinues funding for the Clean Power Plan, global climate change programs, climate change research and partnership programs, and related efforts-saving over $100 million for the American taxpayer compared to 2017 annualized CR levels”.

After reviewing President Donald Trump’s proposed $1.1 trillion budget, which calls for dramatic cuts to federal funding for some agencies including the United Nations, a spokesperson for the worldwide governing body fired back Thursday afternoon defending the organization’s value.

The proposal will call for a $54 billion increase in defense spending that would be offset by cuts to other parts of the government. Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor break the 20 percent-reduction mark as well.

The request’s inclusion of $3 billion for border security, including $1.5 billion for President Trump’s proposed wall on the U.S. -Mexico border, is also politically dicey.

“This is the America-first budget”, Mulvaney told reporters at the White House.

On Wednesday at an appearance in Ypsilanti, Michagan, Mr. Trump announced he would order a review of the EPA’s emissions regulations put into place under President Obama, and said that the White House was in the process of “setting up a task force in every federal agency to identify and remove any regulation that undermines American auto production”.

This morning, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson attempted to defend the budget cuts, arguing that his department is coming off of “an historically high level” of resources. Eliminating the program will “reduce complexity”, the budget proposal says, and produce $732 million in savings.

Funding for the wall has also been a major point of contention in ongoing negotiations over supplemental appropriations.

The Environmental Protection Agency is especially hard hit in Trump’s proposed budget.

Media reports have suggested the State Department budget could see as much as a 37 percent decrease in funding for fiscal year 2018.

Department of Homeland Security – 6.8% increase. Unlike a full budget, it does not provide long analysis and policy descriptions, nor does it address tax policy and the entitlement programs that represent a larger portion of the $4 trillion federal budget than the $1 trillion in discretionary spending.

It is not certain that Trump will be able to get his budget through Congress in anything like its current form. It would recommend a 28 percent reduction at the State Department, which would come mostly from foreign aid, Mulvaney said.