Risingbd Online Bangla News Portal

Dhaka     Friday   29 March 2024

Trump to increase military spending

5 || risingbd.com

Published: 16:51, 27 February 2017   Update: 15:18, 26 July 2020
Trump to increase military spending

President Trump arriving to address the National Governors Association in the White House on Monday

International Desk: President Trump will propose increasing military spending by $54 billion — a nearly 10 percent increase — and reducing spending by the same amount across much of the rest of the government, White House officials said on Monday.

In remarks to the nation’s governors during a White House meeting, the president said he would propose a “public safety and national security” budget for the coming fiscal year that prioritizes the military and other public safety requirements.

“This budget follows through on my promise to keep Americans safe,” Mr. Trump said. “It will include an historic increase in defense spending to rebuild the depleted military of the United States.”

He added that the budget would send a “message to the world in these dangerous times of American strength, security and resolve.”

And he said that the increases in military spending were required to ensure that the United States emerges victorious when it engages in wars with adversaries around the globe.

“We have to start winning wars again — when I was young, in high school and college, people used to say we never lost a war,” the president told the governors. “We need to win or don’t fight it all. It’s a mess like you have never seen before.”

A senior budget official told reporters that most federal agencies would experience a reduction as a result of the increases in military spending. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said foreign aid would face a significant decrease.

The official did not explain why foreign aid, which is a very small fraction of overall government spending and is connected to security concerns abroad, was being targeted for steep reductions.

The budget outline is an early effort by the new administration to make good on Mr. Trump’s campaign promises to drastically reduce government spending in Washington while significantly increasing resources for the military.

Mr. Trump’s proposals will shield entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security from cuts, according to White House officials.

But the increases in military spending will be offset by calls for deep cuts at the Environmental Protection Agency, the State Department and social safety-net programs, the officials said.

The president’s detailed spending plan is still weeks away, and the specifics of what he proposes will face intense scrutiny in Congress, where Republicans are likely to seek changes and Democrats are certain to try to block it.

But the White House is eager to show that Mr. Trump is taking action ahead of a speech he will give Tuesday night to a joint session of Congress. The president plans to use those nationally televised remarks to urge lawmakers to embrace his budgetary vision.

The president must also build the case for his two other legislative priorities: repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act and overhauling the nation’s tax code. The budget outline he presented on Monday does not address either of those initiatives.

In his remarks to governors, Mr. Trump said he would discuss major infrastructure improvements across the country and would lower taxes “very, very substantially.”

Agencies

risingbd/DHAKA/Feb 27, 2017/Amirul

risingbd.com