President Trump presented his proposed 2020 budget Monday, which includes $8.6 billion to fund a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, more than six times what Congress approved for border projects in each of the past two years.
The budget also includes an almost 5 percent increase in military spending while calling for cuts to domestic spending, including for both Medicare and Medicaid over the next 10 years, as well as to federal student loan programs and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Funding for the Environmental Protection Agency would be slashed by 31 percent, and the Interior Department’s budget by 14 percent, while providing over $900 million in law enforcement funding for the agency, which would be directed toward border security. Democrats blasted the budget; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “The cruel and shortsighted cuts in President Trump’s budget request are a road map to a sicker, weaker America.”
We’ll have more on the 2020 budget with investigative reporter David Cay Johnston later in the show.