WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump's budget (all times local):
10:18 a.m.
Donald Trump's budget chief is defending the president's plans to cut social programs as a means to increase economic growth to 3 percent and put "taxpayers first."
Budget director Mick Mulvaney told the House Budget Committee on Wednesday that he went "line by line" through the federal budget and asked "Can we justify this to the folks who are actually paying for it?"
But Democratic Rep. Pramilla Jayapal of Washington told Mulvaney that cuts to food stamps, payments to the disabled, and other programs are "astonishing and frankly immoral."
Mulvaney also told the panel it will take cuts to Social Security and Medicare to balance the budget in the future. Trump left those big retirement programs alone in this year's effort.
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2:55 a.m.
Top officials in President Donald Trump's Cabinet are heading to Capitol Hill to defend his plans to cut domestic programs and parry Democratic criticism of his tax plans.
Budget Director Mick Mulvaney appears Wednesday before the House Budget panel while Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will testify at the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.
Trump on Tuesday released a 10-year budget plan containing jarring, politically unrealistic cuts to the social safety net and a broad swath of domestic programs.
The plan, Trump's first as president, combines $4.1 trillion for the upcoming 2018 fiscal year with a promise to bring the budget back into balance in 10 years, relying on aggressive spending cuts, a surge in economic growth - and a $2 trillion-plus accounting gimmick.