Donald Trump’s Military Spending Goals Will Be Tough to Meet — Here’s Why
Trump says he’ll call for a 10
percent increase in military spending, but making budget cuts elsewhere
could prove unpopular with his base.
Earlier today, the White House announced
that President Donald Trump’s upcoming budget will call for an increase
of $54 billion (or approximately 10 percent) in defense-related
spending. The spending will be paid for by budget cuts elsewhere (the
Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of State, and some
social safety net programs are being targeted), although administration
officials told the New York Times that Medicare and Social Security, which the president promised to protect during the campaign, would be shielded.
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This
will be, to put it mildly, extremely difficult to pull off. The chart
to the left, from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a
progressive think tank, illustrates how the government spent its $3.7
trillion budget in fiscal year 2015.
In
fiscal year 2015, the United States government spent $888 billion
dollars on Social Security (or 24 percent of the budget), $546 billion
on Medicare (about 15 percent), and $602 billion (16 percent) on
“defense and security related international activities.” The government
spent another $223 billion (about 6 percent) on interest payments on the
national debt, a spending category that is also (presumably) not
vulnerable to budget cuts.
In
other words, the categories that the administration either can’t touch
(interest payments), has vowed not to touch (Social Security and
Medicare), or is promising to boost spending for (defense) represent
approximately 60 percent of the federal budget. The rest of the budget
consists of spending on things like education; benefits for veterans;
social safety net programs like Medicaid, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and food stamps (all programs that disproportionately benefit
white, working-class voters); and transportation infrastructure
(another category in which Trump has proposed massive spending
increases). Cuts to most of these programs and services may please
budget hard-liners in the GOP, but they’ll be hugely unpopular with
Trump’s base.
Source: Pacific Standard
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