Trump urges Democrats to fight for 2020 budget

"The Trump administration has also consistently submitted budget proposals that massively reduce programs that protect the country's most vulnerable families," said Mr. Waters.

Trump had already proposed every year of his presidency to significantly reduce spending on national programs, as well as aid programs such as Medicare and Social Security, and Congress ignored them every time.

The President's proposal, however, may give some indication of the President's desire to obtain funding for a border wall and the fact that he will allocate funds for the repair of the country's roads and bridges as part of of an infrastructure contract.

Traditionally, the White House presented its budget proposal to Congress on the first Monday in February, but it was delayed this year due to the closure of the plant.

"The level of borrowing is unsustainable and constitutes one of the biggest threats to the economic future of our country," Vought wrote in the editorial.

It is unclear whether the 5% reduction would be added to the 9% reduction that would be imposed by the budget ceilings set for fiscal year 2020.

Mick Mulvaney, former head of the Bureau of Budget Management and current interim Chief of Staff of the White House, was a major opponent of what is called contingency operations overseas. to offset the reductions in the basic defense budget.

Mulvaney, a self-proclaimed deficit hawk, has recently succumbed to the administration's efforts to balance the budget and crack down on federal spending. Instead, the administration is committed to balancing the budget within 10 years.

At his confirmation hearing for the CAMO's role in 2017, Mulvaney told lawmakers: "He was looking forward to having the opportunity to explain to the President why I think this n & # 39; Is not a good way to spend American taxpayers' money.

Democrats have already denounced the administration's maneuver as a budget "gadget" obscuring the real costs of military operations and ignoring other national priorities.

"Rather than being honest and responsible about his budget, the president chooses to mislead the American public once again," said Kentucky Democratic Representative John Yarmuth, chair of the House's Budget Committee. , and President of the Armaments Services, Adam Smith, Democrat in Washington, in a joint statement in response to Vought 's opinion letter.

A White House official confirmed that the budget will include a request for $ 8.6 billion for the construction of a border wall.

The manager notes that the Wall's next funding request is different from previous years when the White House had asked for money on the wall from a single source of funding: the Department of Homeland Security (more specifically CBP). This year, the White House will ask $ 5 billion for Customs and Border Protection, but will also ask for $ 3.6 billion in military construction funds at the Pentagon.

In addition, the budget contains a request for $ 3.6 billion of additional military construction funds – but these would be used to "replenish" what the administration hopes to spend this year as a result of the declaration of $ 3.6 billion. # 39; emergency. In other words, the White House is asking for money to pay back the funds that Trump has redirected with the executive, and officials do not count this amount in the higher number they claim for the wall (at least $ 8.6 billion).

The president's budget is also expected to include $ 100 million for the Women's Global Development and Prosperity Initiative, a White House official told CNN.

The debate on spending and budget ceilings will inevitably lead to negotiations on raising the debt ceiling, which resumed on 2 March.

Initially, the cap was to control federal government spending, but Congress continued to approve increases to continue borrowing.

And even though the country has reached its limit of debt, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Treasury will be able to pay its bills until the fall of 2019.

Democrats in the past two years have criticized Trump 's tax cuts for increasing the federal deficit, whose CBO projects will exceed $ 1 trillion by 2020.

Critics of the president-backed tax cuts say it will add another $ 1.9 trillion to the country's debt. Last year, Trump also reluctantly signed a massive $ 1.3 trillion spending bill after the Democrats called for bigger budgets for health and education in exchange for money. an increase in military spending.

Trump's budget proposal is also ahead of another major fiscal challenge that Congress will face this year. Legislators will have to decide how to resolve the last years of spending caps required by the 2011 Budget Control Act.

The law has capped the government's discretionary spending for a period of 10 years. It also provided for separate limits for defense and non-defense expenditures that would be triggered by automatic and generalized reductions in expenditures.

Unless Congress is acting to raise them this year, the $ 647 billion limit on ordinary defense spending will shrink by $ 71 billion, an 11% reduction, before adjusting for the same period. inflation. The ceiling for non-discretionary spending would fall to $ 542 billion, or 9%.

Legislators have repeatedly – in 2013, 2015 and 2018 – chosen to raise spending ceilings in two-year increments.

"This is neither sustainable nor responsible," Yarmuth said at a House Budget Hearing held earlier this week. "We need to increase ceilings, both for defense spending and for defense spending, to ensure that every American family has the opportunity to build a better future."