Monday, February 10, 2020

Trump budget plan to slash US foreign aid by 21 per cent, more cash to counter China

Trump’s US$4.8 trillion plan includes US$740.5 billion for defence, including the creation of Space Force

ALREADY MORE THAN THE 2023 PROJECTED BUDGET!!!! AND THE INCREASED 2019 BUDGET!!!


AND IT IS IN ADDITION TO THIS INCREASE IN SPENDING FROM LAST YEAR 


Budget blueprint would drop the Republicans’ long-term goal of eliminating the US deficit over the next 10 years

Reuters

10 Feb, 2020

US President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping. Trump’s 2021 budget will seek an increase in funds to counter developing economic threats from China and Russia. Photo: AFP



US President Donald Trump will propose on Monday a 21 per cent cut in foreign aid and slashes to social safety net programmes in his US$4.8 trillion budget proposal for the 2021 financial year, according to senior administration officials.


The budget will seek an increase in funds to counter developing economic threats from China and Russia, but will also raise funds by targeting US$2 trillion in savings from mandatory spending programmes in the United States. The budget assumes revenues of US$3.8 trillion.

US President Donald Trump will seek US$2 billion more in funding for construction of his border wall. Photo: AP


Trump, a Republican, sought in his budget proposal last year to slash foreign aid but faced steep resistance from Congress and did not prevail.




The president’s latest blueprint for administration spending proposals is unlikely to be passed by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, particularly in an election year.

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Trump, who campaigned for the presidency in 2016 on a promise to build a wall along the US border with Mexico, will seek US$2 billion in funding for further construction on that project, substantially less than the US$8.6 billion he requested a year ago. The administration shifted resources to the project from the military last year after Congress refused Trump’s request.



The White House will not seek further funds from the military for the wall, a senior administration said.



MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN and then, KEEP AMERICA GREAT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
February 9, 2020


The budget seeks US$1 trillion to fund an infrastructure spending bill that both Democrats and Republicans have said is a priority. The two sides are unlikely to agree on any major legislation this year, though, as the two sides fight for control of the White House and Congress in the November elections.
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proposes continuing his effort to “rebuild” the US military by investing heavily in defence spending – a by 0.3 per cent increase to US$740.5 billion in the next financial year – including the creation of Space Force.

The seal of the US Space Force. Photo: EPA


But former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen raised concerns about how the foreign aid cuts would affect the US civilian footprint around the world that helps reduce the need for military intervention.



“This is a moment when more investment in diplomacy and development is needed not less,” he wrote in a letter to top congressional leaders.


Trump’s foreign aid proposal seeks US$44.1 billion in the upcoming year compared with US $55.7 billion enacted in financial year 2020, an administration official said.

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The White House proposes to slash spending by US$4.4 trillion over 10 years.



That includes US$130 billion from changes to Medicare prescription-drug pricing, US$292 billion from cuts in safety net programmes – such as work requirements for Medicaid and food stamps – and US$70 billion from clamping down on eligibility rules for federal disability benefits. Those changes are likely to spur Democrats’ ire.


Trump’s budget shows the president drifting further away from his campaign pledge to eliminate the US national debt by the time he leaves office.


US debt has already risen US$3 trillion to the debt during Trump’s first three years in office, and his plan calls for adding to the debt until 2035.


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The US government ended financial year 2019 with the largest budget deficit in seven years as gains in tax receipts were offset by higher spending and growing debt service payments, the Treasury department said on Friday.


The budget forecasts US$4.6 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years and assumes economic growth will continue at annual rate of roughly 3 per cent for years to come, officials said. Trump has taken credit for the strength of the US economy thanks in part to tax cuts he championed and Congress passed earlier in his term. The budget funds an extension of those cuts over a 10-year period with US$1.4 trillion.
Aid to Ukraine would remain at its 2020 levels under the new foreign aid proposal. Trump was
acquitted last week of impeachment charges that he withheld aid to Ukraine to spur Kiev to investigate political rival Joe Biden, a Democratic presidential candidate and former US vice-president.


Administration officials said that Trump would request an increase in funding for the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to US$700 million from US$150 million the previous year.


Additional reporting by Bloomberg

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