BUDGET/CONGRESS/SPENDING/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump sent Congress on Monday [3-11-19] a record $4.75 trillion budget plan that calls for increased military spending and sharp cuts to domestic programs like education and environmental protection for the 2020 fiscal year. Mr. Trump’s budget, the largest in federal history, includes a nearly 5 percent increase in military spending — which is more than the Pentagon had asked for — and an additional $8.6 billion for construction of a wall along the border with Mexico. It also contains what White House officials called a total of $1.9 trillion in cost savings from mandatory safety-net programs, like Medicaid and Medicare, the federal health care programs for the elderly and the poor. The budget is unlikely to have much effect on actual spending levels, which are controlled by Congress. Democratic leaders in both the House and the Senate pronounced the budget dead on arrival on Sunday, and Mr. Trump’s budgets largely failed to gain traction in previous years, when fellow Republicans controlled both chambers. But the blueprint is a declaration of Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign priorities and the starting skirmish in the race for 2020, as both Republicans and Democrats try to carve out their messages to appeal to voters.”
–Jim Tankersley and Michael Tackett, “Trump Proposes a Record $4.75 Trillion Budget,” The New York Times online, March 11, 2019