President Trump’s fiscal year 2021 budget, to be released Monday, won’t balance within a decade.
Nevertheless, the Trump administration, eager to portray itself as fiscally conservative even as it presides over spending increases and tax cuts, will include $4.4 trillion in spending reductions over the next decade in the budget document, aiming to have it balance within 15 years, rather than the 10-year time frame usually used in such budget blueprints.
The White House budget, which is just a proposal and will be ignored by Congress, is expected to signify that Trump’s priorities lie in directing new funding to the military and NASA while cutting foreign aid and environmental protection and proposing reduced entitlement spending.
As for projections that the federal budget deficit will exceed $1 trillion indefinitely, senior administration officials within the White House are eager to place blame on congressional Democrats for negotiating for increases to domestic spending to go along with the added defense spending demanded by Republicans.
“By not trying to get our spending under control when we have an opportunity to do that, you get a situation like Greece,” a senior administration official said in previewing the budget.
“Greece, all of a sudden, had to make drastic changes to their programs that gave their beneficiaries no opportunity to plan accordingly. We don’t want to be anywhere near that,” the senior administration official said.
Nevertheless, the White House will justify running a large deficit this year as necessary to keep the economy growing at a fast pace and ensure Trump’s reelection.
Trump himself has said that fiscal rectitude is not a priority. “Who the hell cares about the budget? We’re going to have a country,” Trump told donors during a private dinner at Mar-a-Lago last month, according to the Washington Post.
The White House expects to bring down the federal deficit and balance the budget in 15 years by cutting mandatory and discretionary spending and slowing the growth rates of Medicare and Social Security. Mandatory spending, which makes up approximately 60% of federal spending and can’t be changed unless major legislation passes, is primarily made up of spending on entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Administration attempts to overhaul those programs are sure to meet fierce resistance from congressional Democrats, who will argue that Trump is trying to gut safety net programs for the poor.
On the other hand, discretionary spending stems from annual appropriation acts that are under the control of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees in Congress and therefore fluctuates from year to year. Discretionary spending includes funding for the Pentagon, law enforcement, federal staffing, transportation, job training, and much else of what the federal government does.
The key areas of discretionary spending that the Trump administration wants to cut are foreign aid, the Environmental Protection Agency, and parts of the Department of Education. However, the White House would like spending to increase for the Department of Homeland Security, NASA, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Defense.
Trump’s border wall has cost $18 billion so far, and in the 2021 budget, the administration will ask for $2 billion more. A senior administration official said that the wall was nearing 80% completion, using funds allocated by Congress along with extra funding from the Defense Department.
