President Donald Trump, like, totally dropped a budget proposal last Friday, you know? It’s all about making cuts to things like public health, education, and clean energy, but at the same time, he wants to spend more money on his faves like border security and the military. The request is like 40 pages long and was sent to the bigwigs in Congress, along with a letter from Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought to Sen. Susan Collins, who’s in charge of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Vought says the proposal has a 23% cut in discretionary funding, which is like $163 billion, but at the same time, there’s a 13% increase in military spending. So, you know, it’s all about balancing things out, I guess. The White House budget is coming out at a time when the Republicans in Congress are working on a huge bill for Trump’s priorities, like tax cuts, more money for immigration enforcement and the military, and cutting spending in other parts of the government. Oh, and they need to raise the debt limit too. Fun times.
The budget also includes calls for more funding for border security, which is a big deal for Trump. Usually, these budgets from the White House don’t actually become law as they’re written, but they’re important because they show what the president wants to spend money on. And they can influence the debate in Congress. They also give the White House a chance to talk about their top priorities — even if it means making some tough decisions that the other party will definitely use against them.
Trump’s budget could have an impact on the next round of talks about government funding, which runs out at the end of September. Congress already passed a bill to keep things going until then, but this new budget could shake things up. The bill needs support from Democrats to pass in the Senate, so it’s going to be interesting to see how things play out.
The budget proposal includes some big cuts to well-known government programs, like slashing $18 billion from the National Institutes of Health, $4 billion from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, and $3.6 billion from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But it’s not all bad news — there are also plans to boost funding for things like the Department of Homeland Security, the Defense Department, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “MAHA” priorities.
Trump’s budget only covers “discretionary” spending, which means it doesn’t touch the major programs like Social Security and Medicare. Those are where the real tough decisions need to be made, especially when it comes to things like Medicaid. And that’s going to be a big deal when Congress starts working on the budget later this year.
Some Republicans are all about Trump’s budget, like House Speaker Mike Johnson, who called it “a bold blueprint” that shows America’s strength and prosperity. But the Democrats are not impressed. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says they’ll fight this budget with everything they’ve got. He thinks Trump is just looking out for billionaires and big corporations, while regular folks get left behind. It’s going to be a battle for sure.
Collins, the head of the Senate Appropriations Committee, says this budget is just one step in the process. Congress is the one with the power to decide where the money goes. She’s got some issues with the budget, like the cuts to programs that help people with low incomes and support biomedical research. So, it looks like there’s going to be a lot of back-and-forth before anything gets settled.
Sahil Kapur, the author of this article, is a senior national political reporter for NBC News. So, you know, he’s the real deal.
