BUDGET/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “When President Donald Trump sends his annual budget to Congress next week, it will be largely obsolete because the big decisions on government tax and spending priorities have already been made on Capitol Hill.
Last year’s White House budget proposed big cuts in spending programs including food stamps, disability benefits, welfare and student loans, totaling $4.5 trillion over a decade. In the process, it said, it would balance the budget in 10 years.
But a lot has changed since then. In December, Republicans passed a tax cut that congressional scorekeepers estimate will increase the deficit by $1 trillion over a decade when accounting for its estimated effects on growth and revenue collections. Then this week, Republicans and Democrats agreed to a plan to break budget caps and spend $300 billion more than previously planned over the next two years.
The Trump fiscal 2019 budget—due out on Monday [2-12-18]—could again propose large cuts in domestic spending, an even larger boost in military spending and a balanced budget. But to get there, it would have to ignore the political dynamic that recently gave way to large spending increases and higher deficits…
The budget agreement gives congressional committees several weeks to write detailed spending bills. Those measures and the underlying agreement will dictate the direction of federal spending.”
-Kate Davidson, “Spending Bill Overshadows Coming Trump Budget Plan,” The Wall Street Journal online, Feb. 9, 2018 11:33am