Bean counter in chiefDURING his campaign for the White House, Donald Trump touted a “penny plan” for government spending. This meant cutting the part of the budget that funds day-to-day operations—ie, excluding Social Security, health care, debt interest or defence—by 1% a year. Critics said such cuts were unachievable. Department budgets are already beneath their historical average as a share of the economy. They would have to shrink by nearly a third over a decade, after accounting for inflation, to satisfy the penny plan.
That has not deterred Mr Trump. On February 27th the White House announced its headline budget numbers, ahead of a more detailed plan due soon to appear soon. In his first year in office, Mr Trump is proposing to cut so-called “non-defence discretionary” spending not by 1%, but by more than 10%, relative to current law. The $54bn (0.3% of GDP) this would free up would flow to the defence budget (see article).
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Source: United States http://ift.tt/2lZ1Svm
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