by Itunuoluwa Adebo
On Tuesday, the White House will unveil a 2018 $4.6 trillion budget that will in a bid to cut taxes and trim budget deficit, ask Republicans to cut down spending on food assistance programs and healthcare, New York Times reports.
Trump who is currently overseas on his first foreign trip since he assumed office, will be absent during the unveiling of the plan, a plan that would require lawmakers to slash government spending by $3.6 trillion over 10 years, to achieve a balance in the budget by the end of the decade. The budget also plans to increase military spending by 10 percent and spends over $2.6 billion for border security including the $1.6 billion to start building the border wall in Mexico.
According to Reuters, the budget would see over $800 billion cut from the Medicaid program for the poor and over $192 billion from food stamps. The Republican agenda to cut business tax rate from 35% to 15%, and also reduce personal tax brackets from seven to three has struggled since President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey.
The Trump administration’s biggest savings come from cuts to the Medicaid program which is part of a Republican healthcare bill previously passed by the House of Representatives. The healthcare bill will be a direct replacement of the Affordable Healthcare Act a.k.a Obamacare but it faces an uncertain future in the Senate, which is writing its own law.
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The changes made, would require more childless people receiving help from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps), to work. It would also reduce it’s support for farmers, impose user fees for meat inspection and sell off half the nation’s emergency oil stockpile, Reuters reports.
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