Trump to Propose $4.8 Trillion Budget With Military Spending Increases and Cuts to Medicare, Medicaid

President Trump is expected to release a $4.8 trillion budget, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Overall, the budget will increase government spending, though Trump officials will claim that the increase will be at a slower rate than in the past. The slower increase claim is a typical Republican claim that never holds.

But Trump's plan will shift spending, by increasing military spending 0.3%, to $740.5 billion for fiscal year 2021, which begins Oct. 1 at the same time the proposal would lower nondefense spending by 5%  to $590 billion. NASA would see a 12% increase next year while there would be a $130 billion reduction to Medicare via changes in prescription-drug pricing, $292 billion from Medicaid and food stamps cuts as a result of work requirements for Medicaid and food stamps—and $70 billion from tightening eligibility access to disability benefits.

However, The Journal notes that the proposal is unlikely to become law as Democrats control the House and spending bills in the GOP-led Senate need bipartisan support. Democrats signaled their opposition late Sunday to the administration’s budget plan, which Rep. John Yarmuth (D., Ky.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, called “destructive and irrational.”

Budget analysts expect lawmakers to punt final decisions on 2021 spending until after the November election, and instead fund the government with temporary spending measures for the first few months of the fiscal year, reports The Journal.

-RW