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Trump's budget: way more military spending, way less aid and environmental spending

President Donald Trump’s administration released its “America First” budget blueprint Thursday, proposing Congress should increase military spending by over $50 billion and make sizable cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, the State Department, and other federal agencies. Trump also proposed cutting some entities entirely, such as NPR, PBS, and the Meals on Wheels program, a cut which has led to an online backlash. “You can’t drain the swamp and leave all of the people in it,” Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said in a briefing Wednesday.

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Congress ultimately has the most say on where taxpayer dollars go. And because of the 2011 Budget Control Act — also known as the sequester — increasing defense appropriations would require 60 votes in the Senate, while Republicans only account for 52 votes. Still, the $1.1 trillion budget does show Trump’s priorities for fiscal year 2018 (October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2018).

Trump would increase spending on:

  • Department of Defense by $54 billion

  • Department of Veterans Affairs by $4.4 billion

  • Department of Homeland Security by $2.8 billion

  • Opioid prevention and treatment by $500 million

  • School choice programs by $1.4 billion

  • $4.1 billion down payment for the wall on the border between the U.S. and Mexico

Trump would slash spending on:

  • The Environmental Protection Agency by $2.6 billion (31 percent cut)
  • State Department and USAID by $10.1 billion (28 percent cut)
  • Labor Department by $2.5 billion (20 percent cut)
  • Agriculture Department by $4.7 billion (20 percent cut)
  • Department of Housing and Urban Development by $6.2 billion (13 percent cut)
  • Department of Education overall budget by $9 billion (13 percent cut)

Trump would eliminate these agencies completely:

  • African Development Foundation
  • Appalachian Regional Commission
  • Chemical Safety Board
  • Corporation for National and Community Service
  • Corporation for Public Broadcasting
  • Delta Regional Authority
  • Denali Commission
  • Institute of Museum and Library Services
  • Inter-American Foundation
  • U.S. Trade and Development Agency
  • Legal Services Corporation
  • National Endowment for the Humanities
  • National Endowment for the Arts
  • Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation
  • Northern Border Regional Commission
  • Overseas Private investment Corporation
  • U.S. Institute of Peace
  • U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness
  • Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

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