Trump's budget proposal leaves deficit hawks leery of ballooning deficit
Donald Trump has found a new group of critics: Deficit hawks, who say they’re upset with the president for introducing a budget that will balloon the already record-high U.S. national debt by an additional $7 trillion over the next 10 years.
“The people that I talked to over the weekend after that bill passed, they’re incensed,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) told FOX Business’ Trish Regan. “They’re outraged. I’m outraged. And quite frankly, there’s a reason to be outraged.”
On Monday, the White House released its $4 trillion-plus budget proposal, which ordered steep cuts to social services provided by the government, but pushed military and defense spending much higher without seeking to balance the budget over the next decade.
The largest reductions in spending would be seen in non-defense discretionary spending with $1.5 trillion in cuts. The budget also proposes almost $700 billion in savings from repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, as well as $400 billion in other health care savings, primarily from Medicare reforms.
Along with the two-year spending deal that Congress passed on Friday and the $1.5 trillion in tax cuts signed into law in late December, the budget would see the federal deficit rise past $1 trillion in the near-term.
“We’re ballooning our national debt,” Biggs said. “And it’s all unsustainable. It all could’ve been avoided and should’ve been avoided in this most recent round.”