Washington, D.C. (Ali Vitali/NBC News) — The White House is expected to release a “budget blueprint” Monday afternoon, adding $54 billion in defense and security funding while cutting that amount from “lower priority programs” across government agencies.
“We’re going to do more with less,” President Trump said Monday of his “historic increase in defense spending.”
In a call with reporters Monday morning, an Office of Management and Budget official previewed the budget reductions across agencies, saying that they included a “large reduction in foreign aid.” The aid reduction, in tandem with the 10 percent increase in defense spending, echoes Trump’s campaign promise.
The budget blueprint marks the first step in what could be a lengthy negotiations process between the White House and Capitol Hill, with multiple rounds of discussions on the budget’s specifics. The spending priorities come just before the president heads to Capitol Hill on Tuesday evening to deliver a joint session speech to Congress.
The president, both in office and on the campaign trail, has preached a “peace through strength” strategy that involves military build up with the goal of deterrence. In a meeting with America’s governors Monday morning, Trump stressed the need to start winning wars again, bemoaning the fact that the United States’ military prowess is no longer, in his mind, what it used to be.
“We either have to win, or don’t fight at all,” he said.
The OMB official said the reduction in aid spending — which is roughly 1 percent of the budget — is a signal to the rest of the world that the United States expects the rest of the world to “step up” its fiscal commitment.
Asked if the Environmental Protection Agency, which drew Trump’s ire during the campaign, would feel the brunt of the cuts, the official declined to comment on specifics.
Senior administration officials told NBC News prior to Monday’s call that Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid will be protected in this budget outline. But with all eyes on healthcare, the budget’s details will be telling. In a meeting with governors Monday morning, President Trump again promised to repeal and replace President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law.
“We have come up with a solution that really, really, I think, very good,” the president said of the not yet-released plan.
But despite having confidence in the plan, Trump wondered if it wouldn’t be better to take a more political route to healthcare replacement. “I say to the Republicans if you really want to do politically something good, don’t do anything.”
Trump’s prescription is to let Obamacare “be a disaster…because we can blame that on the Democrats and President Obama. Let it implode.”
The White House-organized budget background call comes after the president himself demanded sources be named in news reports. During a Friday address to the Conservative Political Action Committee, Trump said reporters “shouldn’t be allowed to use sources unless they use somebody’s name. Let their name be put out there.”
Asked why the call was on background, officials had no response but reiterated that this was a background briefing.
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