WASHINGTON — The White House’s 2019 budget, released Monday, would ramp up spending on the military, a new border wall and fighting the opioid epidemic while making big reductions in entitlement spending.
“[F]und what we must, cut where we can, and reduce what we borrow,” Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said of the 2019 budget (full document here), likening the U.S. government’s choices to that of an American family’s.
While the administration’s plan does push for cuts to the deficit — $3 trillion over 10 years — it doesn’t balance the budget. Agencies like the departments of Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs and Defense would see some of the biggest increases in funding, while the State, Labor and Housing and Urban Development departments would see theirs decrease.
Entitlement programs frequently targeted by conservatives, like Medicare, Medicaid, and the food aid program SNAP, would also see big cuts.
The 2019 Trump budget puts dollar signs next to key elements of the president’s own priorities list, including $18 billion for a wall along the Southern border, $200 billion for infrastructure spending and billions to combat the opioid epidemic.
The plan would put $200 billion in federal funding toward the administration’s proposed $1.5 trillion infrastructure effort, a proposal that relies heavily on public-private partnerships and asks states and local governments to spur action on infrastructure in their communities. The 2019 budget released Monday asks for $21 billion “to jump-start key elements” on the infrastructure initiative. The White House released the infrastructure proposal in tandem with the budget plan on Monday.
The budget plan also asks for $23 billion in border security and immigration enforcement at what Mulvaney called “our porous southern border” — with $782 million for 2,750 additional law enforcement officers and agents at U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2019, in addition to funding for the long-promised border wall.
“Opioid-related spending” makes up nearly $17 billion in the administration’s 2019 budget, with $13 billion marked for the Department of Health and Human Services over the next two years “to combat the opioid epidemic by expanding access to prevention, treatment and recovery support services, as well as support for mental health.”
Trump’s budget last year came under fire from some in his own party for proposing drastic cuts in State Department funding, and for not suggesting a bigger spending increase for the Department of Defense.
This year, the plan would allocate big dollars for the military and veterans programs, with a proposed $716 billion directed toward national defense spending.
Before the budget was released on Monday, Trump said that it would take “care of the military like never before,” and told reporters in the White House State Dining Room that Defense Secretary James Mattis had called him to say “wow” because they’d never expected to get so much money.