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Trump Plans to Increase Defense Spending, Cut Elsewhere

<p class&equals;"MsoNormal" style&equals;"text-align&colon; left&semi;" align&equals;"center">President Donald Trump is introducing an increase of &dollar;54 billion to the defense budget&comma; while imposing cuts to social programs like the foreign aid&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">The defense budget would be increased by 10&percnt; and Trump is planning on requesting a supplementary &dollar;30 billion for military spending in 2017&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">White House officials made the announcement while on a call with reporters&period; &nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">Right after the phone call&comma; Trump discussed the move while addressing the nation&rsquo&semi;s governors at the White House&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">&ldquo&semi;This budget will be a public safety and national security budget&comma;&rdquo&semi; said Trump&period; He also said the introduced plan will include a &ldquo&semi;historic increase in defense spending to rebuild the depleted military&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">Trump said the country needed to be better prepared to deter war&comma; but also be able to &ldquo&semi;finish things&rdquo&semi; when needed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">&ldquo&semi;We&rsquo&semi;ve got to win or don&rsquo&semi;t fight it at all&comma;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;said Trump&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">White House budget director Mick Mulvaney&nbsp&semi;said the increase in defense budget of &dollar;603 billion is &ldquo&semi;one of the largest increases in history&rdquo&semi; and the non-defense spending cut of &dollar;54 billion would be &ldquo&semi;the largest proposed reduction since the early years of the Reagan administration&period;&rdquo&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">So where will the administration be pulling funds from&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">&ldquo&semi;It reduces money that we give to other nations&period; It reduces duplicative programs&period; And it eliminates programs that simply don&&num;8217&semi;t work&comma;&rdquo&semi; said Mulvaney&comma; while not going into too much detail&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">On his campaign trail&comma; Trump repeatedly promised to build up the military&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">&&num;8220&semi;The president and his Cabinet are working collaboratively to create a budget that keeps the president&&num;8217&semi;s promises to secure the country and restore fiscal sanity to how we spend American taxpayers&&num;8217&semi; money&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said John Czwartacki&comma; Office of Management and Budget spokesman&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">This looks like the beginning of doing just that&comma; but he is bound to get pushback from Democrats&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">&ldquo&semi;Tentative proposals for the 2018 budget year that begins Oct&period; 1 are being sent to agencies&comma; which will have a chance to propose changes to the cuts as part of a longstanding tradition at the budget office&comma;&rdquo&semi; writes <em style&equals;"mso-bidi-font-style&colon; normal&semi;">Newsmax&period; <&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">&ldquo&semi;Trump&&num;8217&semi;s budget&comma; once finalized and sent to Congress in mid-March&comma; is sure to set off a huge Washington battle&period; Democrats and some Republicans are certain to resist the cuts to domestic agencies&comma; and any legislation to implement them would have to overcome a filibuster threat by Senate Democrats&period; A government shutdown is a real possibility&period;&rdquo&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">However&comma; the proposed budget change won&rsquo&semi;t impact Social Security or Medicare programs&comma; another promise Trump made during his campaign&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">&&num;8220&semi;We will be substantially upgrading all of our military&comma; all of our military&comma; offensive&comma; defensive&comma; everything&comma; bigger and better and stronger than ever before&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Trump&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">So far Trump has been vague about which departments the additional money go to&comma; but there has been some speculation&period; &nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">&ldquo&semi;The Pentagon is due for a huge boost&comma; as Trump promised during the campaign&period; But many nondefense agencies and foreign aid programs are facing cuts&comma; including at the State Department&period; The specific numbers aren&&num;8217&semi;t final and agencies will have a chance to argue against the cuts as part of a longstanding tradition at the budget office&comma;&rdquo&semi; writes <em style&equals;"mso-bidi-font-style&colon; normal&semi;">Fox News&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">&ldquo&semi;Left unclear is how such a military increase would square with the requirements of &ldquo&semi;sequestration&comma;&rdquo&semi; the mandatory across-the-board spending caps agreed to by Congress and the Obama administration&period;&nbsp&semi;At the same time&comma; defense hawks on Capitol Hill questioned whether Trump&rsquo&semi;s proposed boost &ndash&semi; which would seek a fiscal 2018 defense budget of &dollar;603 billion &ndash&semi; would be enough&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">Even with the little details known&comma; Democrats are already up in arms about which programs will lose funding&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">&ldquo&semi;A cut this steep almost certainly means cuts to agencies that protect consumers from Wall Street excess and protect clean air and water&comma;&rdquo&semi; said Charles E&period; Schumer&comma; Senate Minority Leader &lpar;D-N&period;Y&period;&rpar;&nbsp&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi &lpar;D-Calif&period;&rpar;&nbsp&semi;expressed similar concerns&period; &nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">&ldquo&semi;A &dollar;54&nbsp&semi;billion cut will do far-reaching and long-lasting damage to our ability to meet the needs of the American people and win the jobs of the future&comma;&rdquo&semi; said Pelosi in a statement&period; &ldquo&semi;The President is surrendering America&rsquo&semi;s leadership in innovation&comma; education&comma; science and clean energy&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">Some believe that the increase in military budget is not enough and will also project sizable deficits&period; &nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">But this is all assumptions at this point&period; Trump will be releasing his final budget proposal in mid-March&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal">&ldquo&semi;The March release is also expected to include an immediate infusion of cash for the Pentagon that&&num;8217&semi;s expected to register about &dollar;20 billion or so and contain the first wave of funding for Trump&&num;8217&semi;s promised border wall and other initiatives like hiring immigration agents&comma;&rdquo&semi; writes <em style&equals;"mso-bidi-font-style&colon; normal&semi;">Fox News&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"MsoNormal"><strong>Author&rsquo&semi;s note&colon; <&sol;strong>Trump is showing that again he is keeping his campaign trail promises&period; With threats coming from ISIS&comma; North Korea&comma; etc &ndash&semi; we should not only ramp up our defense for the country&rsquo&semi;s protection&comma; but also to make a statement&period; It looks like Trump is planning to make America strong again&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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