To fulfill a campaign promise to leave Social Security
and Medicare — which represent more than 40 percent of annual federal spending — untouched while constructing an expensive border wall, Mr. Trump went after a relatively small pot of money, discretionary spending, goring Republicans’ pet programs in the process.
But it is striking to read Mr. Trump’s budget and see clearly mixed messages from the opening pages delivered by Mr. Mulvaney, who praised the budget as a debt crusher,
and from Mr. Trump, who emphasized his increases in military spending.
Congress could have eliminated every penny of domestic spending at its annual discretion this year,
and it would not have balanced the federal budget, according to Congressional Budget Office projections, much less rid the nation of its nearly $20 trillion in government debt — which Mr. Trump told voters he could do easily in eight years.
In that time, spending on people 65 and older who receive Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid
and military and federal civilian retirement income will rise from 37 percent of federal spending in 2017 to 45 percent in 10 years.
