The Trump administration released its fiscal year 2020 budget Monday with a focus on “promises kept” and putting “taxpayers first.”
“America is roaring back, and now is the time to invest in the future of America,” President Donald Trump said of the newly released budget entitled, “A Budget for A Better America: Promises Kept. Taxpayers First.”
The administration sought to highlight three top-line aspects of the budget in a release Monday: moving economic prosperity forward, responsibility, and investment in America. One of the primary focuses was on reducing government spending.
“The Trump Administration’s pro-growth policies have unleashed the American economy, creating millions of jobs and resulting in historically low unemployment,” a White House release from the press secretary read Monday. “However, the national debt – currently more than $22 trillion – remains a grave threat to our economic and societal prosperity.”
The administration pointed to the 2020 budget’s reduction of “nondefense programmatic spending by 5 percent” to a cap level below that in 2019. It takes aim to eliminate or reduce ineffective programs and “reduces spending by $2.7 trillion over 10 years.” The administration projects that the move will reduce the deficit from five percent of GDP in 2020 to less than one percent within ten years.
“President Trump’s budget request reflects his commitment to defending our Nation, ending the opioid epidemic, and building a strong American workforce,” according to the White House.
One of the provisions getting significant attention already is a request for $8.6 billion in border wall funding as part of a total $32.5 billion border security and immigration enforcement ask. Of that $478 million would go toward hiring “1,750 additional Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) law enforcement officers.” Another $2.7 billion would go toward ICE detention beds.
National defense is granted $750 billion in the new Trump administration budget request. The White House identified priorities as, “strategic competition with Russia and China, countering rogue regimes such as North Korea and Iran, defeating terrorist threats, and consolidating gains in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Veterans Affairs medical care requirements would get $80.2 billion under the Trump 2020 budget. This includes money for implementation of the VA Mission Act.
The Department of Justice is afforded $330 million in the budget to fight the opioid crisis that has been an increasing focus of the Trump administration.
“The budget promotes quality education and job training, holds higher education institutions more accountable, and expands Pell Grants to high-quality short-term training programs,” according to the White House.
Michelle Moons is a White House Correspondent for Breitbart News — follow on Twitter @MichelleDiana and Facebook
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