The president’s discretionary budget: Additions vs. cuts
President Donald Trump released a full $4.1 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2018. The discretionary portion, $1.15 trillion or 28 percent of the total budget, needs to be appropriated by the Congress and likely has a greater impact on the government agencies.
Trump’s FY2018 Discretionary Budget Proposal
$3.1 billion decrease from the current levels*
... or hover over the circles to view changes by agency
additions: $67.1B
cuts: $70.2B
* Figures include discretionary funding only and do not include mandatory spending for entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The 2017 levels reflect the current law caps and include Trump’s March request for additional appropriations for defense and border security and an allowance adjustment to reduce non-defense spending.
** The bubbles shown on the scale reflect major government agencies only.
Balancing the budget: A historical view
The president’s budget proposal rarely got passed by the Congress without significant changes. Nevertheless, where the president wanted the money to go showed priorities of the administration. With varying priorities, all the presidents, current and past, tried to balance the budget.