Trump's $4.7 trillion budget locks in $1 trillion deficits, raises defense spending, cuts safety net

President Trump’s new budget proposal would sustain a huge gap between spending and tax revenue through 2022, according to an advance copy obtained by The Washington Post. The deficit proposals reflect the White House’s push for low taxes and higher defense spending and are only partially offset by major spending reductions on Medicare, Medicaid and other domestic programs.

Democrats on Capitol Hill have said many parts of the plan stand no chance of becoming law, but the proposal sets up a sharp contrast for the public and voters heading into budget fights later this year and the 2020 election.

...Trump’s “Budget for a Better America” also includes dozens of spending cuts and policy overhauls that frame the early stages of the debate for the 2020 election. For example, Trump for the first time calls for cutting $845 billion from Medicare, the popular health care program for the elderly that in the past he had largely said he would protect.

His budget would also propose a major overhaul of Medicaid, the health care program for low-income Americans run jointly with states, by turning more power over to states. This would save $241 billion over 10 years.

Other agencies, particularly the Environmental Protection Agency, State Department, Transportation Department, and Interior Department, would see their budgets severely gutted.

More broadly, Tump’s budget would impose mandatory work-requirements for millions of people who receive welfare assistance while dramatically increasing the defense budget to $750 billion next year, a 5 percent increase from 2019...