Trump 2020 budget projects big deficits despite spending cuts

CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 3/11/2019, 12:22 p.m.
President Donald Trump delivered a 2020 budget to Democrats on Monday that cuts spending across the board yet still isn't …
President Donald Trump delivered a 2020 budget to Democrats that cuts spending across the board yet still isn't projected to balance for 15 years, even with ambitious economic growth forecasts.

By Donna Borak, CNN

(CNN) -- President Donald Trump delivered a 2020 budget to Democrats on Monday that cuts spending across the board yet still isn't projected to balance for 15 years, even with ambitious economic growth forecasts.

The President's blueprint also revisits the political fight over border wall funding that triggered this past winter's partial government shutdown.

Trump wants to cut funding for most federal government agencies by $2.7 trillion, while boosting defense spending and setting aside $8.6 billion for the proposed wall along the US-Mexico border.

With a built-in deficit of more than $22 trillion, the Trump administration described next year's budget for the fiscal year starting on October 1 as a "return to fiscal sanity" that won't hinder economic growth.

"This budget will have more reductions than any president in history has proposed," a senior administration official told reporters on a call Monday.

House Democrats have already called the plan dead on arrival, arguing that the proposal would leave the country less safe and secure with "no chance" of passing in the chamber that they control.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said on Sunday they would block efforts by Trump to get $8.6 billion to build his wall.

"President Trump hurt millions of Americans and caused widespread chaos when he recklessly shut down the government to try to get his expensive and ineffective wall, which he promised would be paid for by Mexico," they said in a joint statement. "We hope he learned his lesson."

The blueprint also calls for $200 billion for infrastructure spending, with the Trump administration open to working with Congress to construct a package that could attract bipartisan support.