On March 16, the White House released its Fiscal Year 2018 proposed budget blueprint, or “skinny budget,” receiving swift criticism from Republicans and Democrats.
The blueprint calls for cuts to State and EPA to offset more defense spending, border wall, and school voucher program. To counterbalance the $54 billion increase in defense spending, Trump’s proposal eliminates 19 federal agencies, including the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities.
The blueprint only looks at discretionary programs, which do not include Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, leaving a significant portion of the Trump’s overall budget and fiscal vision unknown.
Major proposals include:
- 29% cut to the State Department, or $10.9 billion. It also eliminates climate change prevention programs, reduces funding for the UN and World Bank, and merges USAID with the State Department.
- $54 billion rise in military spending, increasing the size of the Army and Marines, the number of ships in the Navy’s fleet and technical superiority in the Air Force.
- 31% cut to EPA, or $2.5 billion. One-fifth of EPA employees and over 50 programs will be eliminated. While drinking water infrastructure funding remains intact, scientific research will face large cuts.
- 13% cut to Department of Transportation, or $2.4 billion. This is a surprisingly large decrease given his campaign pledges to invest heavily in infrastructure, as the Department awards grants that fund highway, rail road station, and dozens of other projects across the country. Urban and rural communities will lose popular transportation programs. The popular TIGER grants, would be cut by about $500 million.