Trump turns attention to budget cutting after slashing taxes

By Steve Holland

 

U.S. President Donald Trump looks up as he holds a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, U.S., October 17, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump, faced with a budget deficit at a six-year high, on Wednesday told his Cabinet to come up with proposals to cut spending by their agencies by 5 percent, but he suggested the military would be largely spared.

 

"I'd like you all to come back with a 5 percent cut," Trump told his Cabinet secretaries at a meeting attended by reporters.

 

"If you do more than that, we will be very happy. There are some people sitting at the table ... that can really do substantially more," he said.

"Get rid of the fat. Get rid of the waste."

 

The administration is beginning to pull together plans for the president's fiscal 2020 budget proposal, which Trump will present to Congress early next year.

 

As a candidate in the 2016 presidential election, Trump pledged to slash government spending, and many fellow Republicans going into Nov. 6 congressional elections have picked up the theme in their own campaigns.

 

But the U.S. government ended the 2018 fiscal year with a $779 billion deficit, the Treasury Department said on Monday, as Republican-led tax cuts squeezed revenues.

 

In an interview with Reuters, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said his party would take a hard look at spending on domestic programs next year in an effort to rein in the red ink.

 

"We had to negotiate with the Democrats and spend more on the domestic side than I would have preferred," McConnell said of the current budget.

 

Asked whether the Pentagon would need to meet the 5 percent target, Trump suggested it would largely get a pass.

 

"We know what the new budget is for the Defense Department. It will probably be $700 billion dollars," Trump said. "It's defence. It's very important."

 

In August, Trump signed a $716 billion defence policy bill. A reduction to $700 billion would mark a cut of under 3 percent.

 

Economists expected the corporate and individual tax cuts that were signed into law late last year to balloon the federal deficit.

 

The deficit also widened over the past year because of more spending on interest payments on the national debt. Borrowing has increased, partly to make up for the relatively slow growth in tax revenues. Spending on the military also spiked.

 

Many Republicans, including Trump, have blamed the yawning deficit on other government spending and social programs.

 

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Lisa Lambert and Makini Brice; editing by Tim Ahmann and Tom Brown)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-10-18

The only economic policy Republicans have any more is cutting taxes which according to their PR makes jobs. The fact that it benefits the wealthy and damages the middle and lower clases exponentially is of course true but not anything they like to mention. Just grin all the way to the bank.

Savvy move though as a path to finally get rid of "entitlements", which has been the holy grail of these tea-partiers since their founding.

 

Not sure they understand that the rural red-state white folk rely on these entitlements (workers comp, disability, medicare, medicaid, etc.) far more than the immigrants or non-white people? 

 

 

Edited October 18, 20187 yr by mtls2005

Fat and Waste is the Key to start. The use it or lose it mentality of the Agencies has got to be curbed.

Just now, Nyezhov said:

Fat and Waste is the Key to start. The use it or lose it mentality of the Agencies has got to be curbed.

Typical reflexive right wing attitude. The agency that is documented to have the most waste by far is the military. Naturally that's the one that Trump wants to protect.

Pentagon buries evidence of $125 billion in bureaucratic waste

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/pentagon-buries-evidence-of-125-billion-in-bureaucratic-waste/2016/12/05/e0668c76-9af6-11e6-a0ed-ab0774c1eaa5_story.html?utm_term=.a56d6a783054

 

 

 

Special Report: The Pentagon's doctored ledgers conceal epic waste

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pentagon-waste-specialreport/special-report-the-pentagons-doctored-ledgers-conceal-epic-waste-idUSBRE9AH0LQ20131118

 

 

Anyone with a brain larger than a pea had to know this was coming.

 

First Trump and the Republicans pass the huge tax cuts that mainly benefited big business and the wealthy, and basically every decent economist at the time predicted the federal budget deficit would rise sharply.

 

Now McConnell and other Republicans are out talking about the need to cut and curtain Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and those cuts in their view are required to address the federal budget deficit -- which they just got thru ballooning with their get rich tax cuts.

 

Disgusting.... If the Republicans were ever serious about reigning in the federal deficit, which they haven't been serious about for years, they never would have passed the corporate tax cuts in the first place.  But obviously in their book, the rich have to get richer and the poor and middle class have to get poorer.

 

And yet, ordinary Americans keep voting these charlatans into Congress, despite clear indications and evidence all along that they were committed to policies that, if they get their way, are going to harm average Americans, especially the elderly and retired.

 

https://www.newsweek.com/deficit-budget-tax-plan-social-security-medicaid-medicare-entitlement-1172941
 

Quote

 

The deficit has increased 77 percent since McConnell became majority leader in 2015.

New Treasury Department analysis on Monday revealed that corporate tax cuts had a significant impact on the deficit this year. Federal revenue rose by 0.04 percent in 2018, a nearly 100 percent decrease on last year’s 1.5 percent. In fiscal year 2018, tax receipts on corporate income fell to $205 billion from $297 billion in 2017.

 

 

Edited October 18, 20187 yr by TallGuyJohninBKK

1 hour ago, mtls2005 said:

Savvy move though as a path to finally get rid of "entitlements", which has been the holy grail of these tea-partiers since their founding.

 

Not sure they understand that the rural red-state white folk rely on these entitlements (workers comp, disability, medicare, medicaid, etc.) far more than the immigrants or non-white people? 

 

 

Oh, they understand it all right but since these voters seem to be willing to bend over and take it whatever the GOP and the man-child throw at them they have done so with impunity.

Let's hope a further loss of "entitlements" makes some of them wake up and smell the stinky roses.

8 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Anyone with a brain larger than a pea had to know this was coming.

.......

.......

And yet, ordinary Americans keep voting these charlatans into Congress, despite clear indications and evidence all along that they were committed to policies that, if they get their way, are going to harm average Americans, especially the elderly and retired.

 

 

Yup.... I’m picking up what your laying down....

????????????????????????????

Maybe trump should get the Mexicans to pre pay for the wall....or level more tariffs.... MAGA! 

He looks a little frazzled to me. Maybe the Democrats and other Trump-haters will have their fondest wish granted (but I wouldn't bet on it - Pence is looking pretty good these days).

Edited October 18, 20187 yr by MaxYakov

Hit the Trump voters where it hurts-suckers 

Cut trump he is fat you could probably render his blubber and get a barrel of low grade crude lol heres a thought pay your fair share of taxes rich guys quit trying to bleed the working class

"Get rid of the fat. The waste".

An invitation for impeachment and removal ?????

I think the first thing they should cut is health care for senators. We will see how they vote on it after they haven't had it for a while. 

Cut all tax to 0%..let us see what will happen

36 minutes ago, mlmcleod said:

The GOP has finally figured out that the best way to kill "big government" is to drive it to bankruptcy.

 

I think that's what the right-wing part of the GOP, which these days is pretty much all that remains, has been trying to do for many years.

 

In the past, it was the legislative debt ceiling limits that they tried to use as a cudgel to attack domestic government spending. But eventually, even the Republicans couldn't deal with actual debt limits, so they embarked on this new tactic.

 

Huge tax cuts for big corporations and the wealthy -- the kinds of entities who thru PACs and such throw obscene amounts of campaign donations their way and wage "independent" campaign spending -- and then turn around and whine and cry that the federal government can't afford and thus needs to cut social safety net programs that protect average citizens like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

 

It's shameless, disgusting and the most vile form of political double-talking. But they are serving themselves and their masters, I'll give them that.

 

 

9 hours ago, mlmcleod said:

So they will attempt to privatize Social Security so that big business can profit and cut and reduce benefits.

If social security was privatized under the plans I have seen when I joined the system, Id be buying Elite Visas for anyone who bought me a beer in a Go Go ????

7 minutes ago, Nyezhov said:

If social security was privatized under the plans I have seen when I joined the system, Id be buying Elite Visas for anyone who bought me a beer in a Go Go ????

If Social Security had been privatized under the plans proposed by George W. Bush, it would have precipitated a huge influx of funds into stocks and bonds making the financial system even more unstable. But it would have been immensely profitable to Wall Street.

What plans are you referring to?

The vast, overwhelming majority of people who rely on these safety nets are extremely risk averse. That’s why these programs can’t be privatized.

7 minutes ago, attrayant said:

The vast, overwhelming majority of people who rely on these safety nets are extremely risk averse. That’s why these programs can’t be privatized.

Excellent point, but is their a solution to that? I guess thats the subject of another topic, though! Off to temple hunt!

Excellent point, but is their a solution to that?

It’s not a problem, so I don’t see why it needs a solution.

These are useful programs that are wildly popular, and in my opinion, one of them needs to get a lot bigger and have its name changed to “Medicare for All”.

Just make sure they’re properly funded.

There are plenty cuts can be made starting with the military, since the USA spends more on defense than the next 7-10 countries combined. But we all know that ain't happening. A lot of corporate subsidies could be abolished. Oil and farming subsidies could be slashed. Social Security could be reworked (or even privatized)...starting with the "grandfathering in" of those over a certain age, like maybe 45 or 50 or even 40. 

 

There are plenty of places to start the slashing (military being #1), even before the tax cuts...but special interest dollars (and votes) prevent any real cuts from ever taking place. Meat and dairy are still subsidized and indirectly, even though subsidies officially ended a few years ago, so is tobacco! Included in certain corporate and farming subs. 

 

It's a never ending spiral down the toilet. 

Edited October 19, 20187 yr by Skeptic7