Just curious. Can Trump decline to spend on a budget item?
They’re finishing up a cobbled up Obama budget that was never passed by congress, hence was done by CR. This particular CR is only for a 5 month period to finish out the 2017 FY.
The true test for Trump will be the FY 2018 budget which he will own in its entirety. I suggest we withhold judgment until that process runs it’s course. I expect there will be many battles to be fought, and if Trump truly has the balls to drain the swamp, he will be prepared to use his political capital to go after Individual members of Congress. He must be prepared to challenge GOP incumbents in the 2018 elections if that’s what it takes to push his agenda.
Trump got less than half the money he wanted for the budget, and he got money for the border where Schumer and Pelosi said he can’t spend it on his wall (that poor excuse of a wall shown by Spicer is not what we voted for).
Lindsey Graham of all people said the Democrats “cleaned our clocks,” and HE didn’t know if he’d vote for it. This thing was a disaster, and the White House should quit trying to spin it any other way.
Republicans are always afraid of negative media headlines in the NYT/WaPo/Alphabet Nets and don’t want the Democrats to hate them, so they cave. They want to make it look like they can govern, so they give the Democrats every thing they want. That’s not what we voted for. If we wanted Democrats, we’d vote for them.
I expect better in September. If they capitulate in September, then we’re screwed.
There are lots of dirty Politics/power Struggles baked in. Trump got what his team could get. Now Congress is cleared 4 Health Care bill. The CR made the AHCA possible, with big tax/spending $$ upside. Also allows for Tax Reform to move fwd. Come Sept. there will be no compromise w/Dems. 2018 budget gets done with Dems; w/o through Reconciliation; or Govt shutdown high-noon-showdown
This has not been signed yet. They just wanted to continue the continued spending resolution and not shut down the Feds. Oh well....lets see what happens after TrumpCare passes. Then we will see the real deal.
If a democrat had gotten into the White House, the republican Congress would have acted out some kind of pretense to show voters they opposed the democrats. Now they don’t even bother with pretense.
Clinton would not have been able to put her budget thru until FY 2018 (Sep 2017) either. You cannot compare Clinton or Trump (ok maybe Clinton) to Zero’s FY 2017 (Sep 2016) budget, which is getting additional funding.
Here’s the 2018 proposed budget blueprint (with my own fast and furious notes) that we will get started on in a month or two whipping our congresscritters to get this done. It’s not everything but it’s a running start:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/budget/fy2018/2018_blueprint.pdf
1. Agri - 21% cut - supports WIC, reduce Fed land acq. fully fund wildfire supp. Reduce/refocus/streamline staff
2. Commerce - 16% cut - consolidates replicating offices; eliminates EDA, MBDA, MEP, NOAA grants; supports NWS,NTIA
3. DoD -10% bonus - repeals defense sequestration
4. DoEd - 13% cut - supports charter schools/IDEA programs; consolidates/eliminates underperforming programs
5. DoEnergy - 5% cut - supports Yucca Mtn; grid security
6. HHS - 18% cut - target welfare fraud; eliminate duplicative programs and grants
7. DHS - 7% bonus - THE WALL - infrastructure security, fair NFIP funding, FEMA funding from states; refocus TSA to passenger safety (lots of stuff here)
8. HUD - 13% cut - nonperforming loan programs cut
9. DoIn - 12% cut - supports Park Svc infrastructure and USGS Landsat; limits land acquisition; end duplicative programs
10. DoJ - 4% cut - supports FBI and local police, target crime/drug traffickers; faster firearm background checks; more deportation hires
11. DoLabor - 21% cut - focus on Fair Trade agreements; elimination of nonperforming grant programs or shift cost to states
12. DoState - 28% cut - Eliminates Global Climate Change Initiative, program payments, funding to the UN; refocuses humanitarian assistance; shifts military aid grants to loans; reduce World Bank funding; supports Israel, and supports vaccine/hiv/aids, etc programs
13. DoT - 13% cut - FAA privatization; cuts Amtrak/EAS/TIGER subsidies
14. Treasury - 4% cut - digitize IRS, IRS cybersecurity; cut CDFI
15. Veterans - 6% bonus - increase programs - Veterans Choice
16. EPA - 31% cut - ends anything climate change including CPA; ends funding for certain regional projects - states to fund their own local efforts and programs
17. NASA - 0.8% cut - Asteroid redirect program cut; deep space, Mars, Europa gain; eliminates ‘office of education’
18. SBA - 5% cut - eliminates PRIME and other grants that can be private or locally funded; supports SBA outreach and disaster relief
Steady on!