The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities says I’m wrong. Donald Trump’s “Penny Plan” wouldn’t cut domestic spending by 25 percent. It would cut it by 29 percent.
Oh well, what’s a few percentage points among friends? Either way, the question is: What is Trump going to cut? He’ll never, ever tell us, of course, but I thought I could help everyone understand a bit better what we’re talking about here. The big ticket items in the budget are defense and the big mandatory domestic programs (Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, SNAP, interest on the debt, etc.). That’s about 88 percent of the budget. The 12 percent that’s left over is domestic discretionary: the FBI, NASA, courts and prisons, and so on. This is the part that Trump wants to cut.
Roughly speaking, what Trump wants to do is slice about $150 billion out of these programs. I can’t create one of those fancy tools where you get to create your own budget, but I can at least give you a sense of where this money goes. It’s in the chart below (all numbers are approximate). So have at it. Cut $150 billion and create your very own Trumpian budget.
