Officials: Trump Will Ask for Sharp Increase in Military Spending

Will Try to Cover Costs With Domestic Cuts

by Jason Ditz,

Administration officials say that President Trump is intending to order a new budget which will see a “sharp increase” in military spending, coupled with significant cuts to the EPA and State Department, along with substantial cuts to other domestic spending.

Details on what exactly this budget is going to look like are, of course, still a matter of a lot of speculation, but officials say that Trump’s intention is to find money for the military without touching either Social Security or Medicare spending, in keeping with campaign promises.

Since the election, President Trump has been talking up some very expensive military plans, including increases in the number of troops, ships, and warplanes the US has available, and has talked up more nuclear weapons recently, arguing the US needs to be unrivaled.

The expectation is that the EPA and State Department will be asked to shave tens of billions off their budgets, but given the massive size of the Pentagon’s existing budget, anything qualifying as a “sharp increase” seems like it’s going to involve a lot more money than that.

http://news.antiwar.com/2017/02/26/officials-trump-will-ask-for-sharp-increase-in-military-spending/