President Trump will release the administration's 2018 budget proposal on Tuesday, which promises to be a significant overhaul of the federal budget.

In all, the budget proposes cutting $3.6 trillion in spending over 10 years – the largest cut "proposed by any president in a budget," according to the White House – while also being deficit-neutral this year and fully balanced within 10.

Reaching that goal will require a number of factors to fall in the administration's favor, including passage of the American Health Care Act – the GOP replacement for the American Care Act (Obamacare), which passed the House but has dubious prospects in the Senate – and a GDP growth rate of 3 percent per year. (The U.S. economy grew 1.6 percent in 2016 and 2.6 percent in 2015; it hasn't risen above 3 percent since 2005.)

"We're making a bunch of assumptions here," Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said during a briefing with reporters ahead of the budget's release. However, Mulvaney said he and the administration are confident in those assumptions.

The $1.15 trillion budget proposal comes at the federal appropriations process from the reverse angle when compared to years past, Mulvaney said.

In his estimation, past budgets have been formulated from the perspective of the recipients – here's how much people should get for programs and services. The 2018 budget proposal – titled "A New Foundation for American Greatness" – is a "taxpayer-first budget," according to Mulvaney.

"This is, I think the first time in a long time an administration has written a budget through the eyes of the people who are actually paying the taxes," he said. "The question we asked ourselves as we went line by line: Can I ask somebody – a family in Grand Rapids, Michigan – to pay tax money to the government so that I can do 'X'?"

For federal employees, that will additional funding in areas like border security – which would get $2.6 billion, $1.6 billion specifically to build the wall – while other areas like Medicaid and unauthorized programs see significant cuts.

The budget Congress eventually passes may or may not include any of this. The annual administration budget proposal is merely a suggestion to Congress, as Mulvaney well knows – the former South Carolina representative spent six years in the House.

But the budget document is a "message from the president of the United States to the Congress that says: Here are my priorities in terms of where I want to spend more, here's where I think we shouldn't be spending nearly as much, and here's some of the big ticket items," Mulvaney said.

He outlined four presidential priorities in the budget:

  • More funding for defense;
  • More funding for border security;
  • More funding for the veterans and school choice programs; and
  • All without adding to the deficit this year.

"If Congress has a different way to get to that endpoint, God bless them, that’s great," he said, adding that he hopes members of Congress will work with the administration to achieve these goals.

About Aaron Boyd

Aaron Boyd is an awarding-winning journalist currently serving as editor of Federal Times — a Washington, D.C. institution covering federal workforce and contracting for more than 50 years — and Fifth Domain — a news and information hub focused on cybersecurity and cyberwar from a civilian, military and international perspective.

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