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21:28 GMT
WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (KUNA) -- White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney Monday said initial budget blueprint of President Donald Trump calls for USD 603 billion in defense spending, a USD 54 billion increase, "one of the largest increases in history."
Proposed non-defense spending in the Trump budget will be USD 462 billion, a reduction of USD 54 billion, Mulvaney said, describing those proposed cuts as "savings.
"It's the largest proposed reduction since the early years of the Reagan administration," Mulvaney said during an appearance at the White House briefing, referring to the 1980s.
"The reductions in non-defense spending follow the same model as the President (Trump) keeping his promises and doing exactly what he said he was going to do."
The Trump budget blueprint "reduces money that we give to other nations," Mulvaney said.
"It reduces duplicative programs, and it eliminates programs that simply don't work. The bottom line is this: The President's going to protect the country and do exactly what every American family has had to do over the past couple of years, and that is to prioritize spending.
"Foreign aid, for example, the president said we're going to spend less money overseas and spend more of it here," Mulvaney said.
"That's going to be reflected with the number we send to the State Department."
The budget numbers will be sent to federal agencies for their review, then returned in a few days, "and we'll spend the next week or so working on a final budget blueprint," he said.
"We expect to have that number to Congress by March 16th," he said. "That puts us on schedule for a full budget ... in the first part of May." (end)
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