Washington: US President Donald Trump presented to Congress a budget proposal for fiscal year 2020 that contained stiff spending cuts across non-defence federal agencies, and a hike in defence money.
According to the $4.7 trillion budget proposal, the Trump administration plans to cut domestic spending by 5 per cent over the next year, or a nearly $30-billion-dollar, involving programs on education, health care and environment protection, among others, Xinhua news agency reported.
The budget blueprint proposes a $2.7 trillion spending cuts over the next decade, including $1.9 trillion in cuts to mandatory programmes, a senior administration official told a briefing Monday. The official said the budget “will have more reductions in spending than any president in history has even proposed.”
The budget plan foresees a $1.1 trillion deficit in 2019, 2020 and 2021, and a 1-trillion-dollar deficit in 2022. The administration predicts that the United States will return to budget balance in 2034.
The budget roadmap, designed for fiscal year 2020 that starts October 1, would increase defence spending by nearly 5 per cent to $750 billion from $716 billion in fiscal year 2019.
It also seeks $ 8.6 billion for constructing additional sections of a wall along the US border with Mexico –$5 billion in funding for the Department of Homeland Security and $3.6 billion for the Department of Defense’s military construction fund.
IANS
