Trump’s budget will have money for border wall

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President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting in Washington on February 9, 2018. His administration is due to present his budget, which his budget director says will include funding for a border wall. Photo: Abaca Press/TNS

Published: 1:46am, 12 Feb 2018Updated: 1:46am, 12 Feb 2018

President Donald Trump’s budget director says the budget that the administration sends to Congress on Monday will seek to move some of the billions of dollars in extra spending that Congress approved last week to areas that will reflect the president’s priorities.

Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said on Sunday that the administration’s budget plan will include US$3 billion for the wall along the southern border that Trump has made a priority, but there will be a contingency for US$25 billion in spending on the wall over two years if Congress passes legislation to deal with young immigrants known as Dreamers.

Mulvaney acknowledged the new spending approved last week could result in annual deficits in future years of US$1 trillion and higher, but he said the administration will propose ways to avoid that fate.

White House budget director Mick Mulvaney speaks at a news briefing at the White House in Washington, on January 20, 2018. Photo: Reuters

Trump on Friday signed a US$400 billion budget deal that sharply boosts spending and swells the federal deficit, ending a brief federal government shutdown. Trump tweeted that the bill would make the military “stronger than ever before” and the increased spending will mean “JOBS, JOBS, JOBS.”

But irate conservatives pointed to projections that the increased spending puts the government on track to hit a US$1.2 trillion deficit in 2019 and to record trillion-dollar-plus deficits far into the future.