President Trump has no choice but to increase military spending, necessitating cuts elsewhere in the federal budget, his top economic advisor said Sunday in defending the administration’s cuts to agency spending.
“We have no alternative but to invest in our military,” said Gary Cohn, director of the White House National Economic Council, appearing on “Fox News Sunday.”
The generals who advise the president, Cohn remarked, have made it clear that greater military spending is needed.
To do that without adding to the deficit, he said, “you have to make cuts. It’s no different from every other family in America” that has to prioritize spending.
Trump has proposed increasing Pentagon funding by $54 billion and cutting the equivalent amount from other federal agencies.
Proposed cuts to agencies like the Department of Housing and Urban Development have led congressional Democrats to raise alarms about the domestic effects and to criticize the Trump administration.
While the White House proposes budget numbers, Congress authorizes federal spending.
