Trump Wants To Reduce Deficit But Refuses To Cut Spending, New Report Says
“He’d just say, run the presses, run the presses. Sometimes it seemed like he was joking, and sometimes it didn’t,” a former Trump administration official recounted for the Washington Post. Trump’s plea to “run the presses” was directed at former National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, as the president was trying to persuade the council to print more money.
Cohn resigned in March this year, according to CNBC, but not a lot has changed since. The Washington Post‘s newest report, based on conversations with 10 current and former White House officials, details President Donald Trump’s internal contradictions and what appears to be general incoherence in the administration’s fiscal policies. Trump is reportedly looking at ways to reduce growing deficits but remains adamant that virtually no changes in spending be made, rejecting suggestions. While demanding spending cuts, Trump is asking of aides to spare the military, Medicare, and Social Security. Medicare, Trump reportedly tells aides, is popular among the people, which is why he wants no reductions to be made to it.
Apart from rejecting proposals, the president is reportedly proposing new, expensive programs. He has called, administration officials claim, for monumental infrastructure packages, demanded billions of dollars for the border wall — one of his key campaign promises — floated a 10 percent middle-class tax cut. Some of these demands have been made public as well. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, on October 20, ahead of the midterms, Trump promised a “major tax cut” for the middle class, only to be reminded that the U.S. Congress would have to wait until after the midterm elections to approve the decision.
Trump demands action to reduce deficit, pushes new deficit spending https://t.co/pegd1hZfR6
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 25, 2018
Notably, WaPo‘s sources claim, Trump has not specified how he would pay for any of the programs he keeps calling for. Whenever Robert Mueller’s Russia probe erupts in a guilty plea or a new, shocking development, the president reportedly goes back to the infrastructure, demanding that the administration comes up with ways to revive various federal programs pertaining to it. According to current and former White House officials, Trump is of the opinion that the government is not spending enough. But since the government actually spends more than it makes, the United States Treasury projects it will issue $1.3 trillion in debt in 2018.
Some Republicans, seemingly faithful to the party’s formerly signature fiscal conservatism, are openly calling out the administration for refusing to reduce spending. “Republicans have talked a good game about deficit spending, but in reality, their record shows they haven’t stood up and stopped it,” Trump’s former Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short said in a statement. According to the Washington Post, during a golf game last year, junior United States Senator from Tennessee Bob Cooker urged Trump to push for a cut in spending. “The people want their money,” the president responded, terminating the conversation.
