WASHINGTON (AP) – The Trump administration aims to further tighten its grip on spending, issuing a memo Friday that calls for eliminating some federal agencies and cutting government jobs as part of the upcoming fiscal 2019 budget.
Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney wrote in the memo to agency and department heads that the goal is “ensuring that the federal government spends precious taxpayer dollars only on worthwhile policies.” He added that the 2019 budget would be a “comprehensive plan” to reduce the number of government workers and merge or terminate federal agencies as requested by an executive order signed in March by President Donald Trump.
The guidance follows on the spirit of Trump’s 2018 budget proposal initially outlined in March. That blueprint would sharply reduce spending for Medicaid, food stamps and student loan subsidies, among other programs. Even Republican lawmakers called the cuts draconian and have said the proposal was unlikely to survive intact in Congress, which is writing legislation to fund government agencies and departments.
The White House budget plan also gave ammunition to Democrats who said that Trump had turned against his own supporters in the industrial Midwest and rural counties. The budget reduced funding for infrastructure, small regional airports and an environmental cleanup program for the Great Lakes.
Mulvaney said in the memo that spending reductions are necessary to achieve annual economic growth of 3 percent. Most economists say the United States will struggle to grow much faster than 2 percent a year due to baby boomers retiring and relatively low productivity gains. But Trump has promised to restore growth to the average previously seen in the half-century after World War II.