BUDGET/CABINET/DEFICIT/MILITARY/SPENDING/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “U.S. President Donald Trump, faced with a budget deficit at a six-year high, on Wednesday [10-17-18] 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…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 [10-15-18], 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.”
–Reuters Staff, “Trump turns attention to budget cutting after slashing taxes,” Reuters, October 17, 2018 8:55 am