The White House has released President Trump's 160-page budget for fiscal year 2019. It includes, in part, funding for the border wall, and reforms to social welfare programs.
Too many of these programs are "ineffective," according to the proposal. So, Trump is offering states the opportunity to create Welfare to Work projects that “streamline funding from multiple welfare programs,” since they know the needs of their citizens better than Washington.
The White House laid out its “bold new approach” to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that “combines traditional SNAP benefits with 100-percent American grown foods provided directly to households and focuses administrative reforms on outcome-based employment strategies.” It calls for a $200 billion cut to the program.
The budget also calls for a renewed sense of integrity among these welfare programs.
“This new opportunity would be accompanied by a strong accountability framework. Specifically, plans to combine safety net programs would be subject to rigorous, random-assignment evaluations, measuring achievement in targeted outcomes.”
The most controversial part of the budget, however, is most likely going to be the section on “Building the Wall.”
Building the Wall, Dismantling Transnational Criminal Organizations, and Enforcing
Our Immigration Laws. The Budget reflects my Administration’s serious and ongoing commitment
to fully secure our border, take the fight to criminal gangs like MS-13, and make our immigration
system work for Americans. The Budget provides funding for a wall on our Southwest border
and additional resources for law enforcement at the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice.
The Budget also funds an increase in the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers,
Border Patrol agents, and immigration judges to improve enforcement at the border and within the
United States.
The budget calls for $18 billion for the border wall, and $1.6 billion to support CBP efforts along the U.S.-Mexico border, $211 million for 750 additional Border Patrol agents in 2019, and $208 million in new funding for 300 additional ICE Special Agents.
As for DACA, Trump said during a meeting at the White House Monday that he wanted it separate from the budget so they could talk about it and make a deal. He hopes the Democrats won’t hold the issue hostage for political reasons.
At the White House meeting, Trump also said he regretted that the U.S. has spent $7 trillion in Middle East, and the region is "worse" than ever.
“What a mistake,” he said. Instead, they are now going to build roads and bridges here in the U.S.
The biggest reason the budget passed last week was because of the military, according to the president. The military was "depleted" when he took office, but now they will be getting the resources they need.
The budget offers $716 billion in defense spending for 2019. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was so pleased that he called Trump and said, “I can’t believe we got everything we wanted,” according to Trump.
You can read the budget in its entirety here.