Trump Keeps Huge Promise: Demands Cabinet Shrink Gov't by at Least 5%
President Donald Trump ran for office on a promise to “drain the swamp,” and a rather significant part of that is getting rid of the incredibly “swampy” waste, fraud and abuse that seems to be inherent in the government’s bloated budget.
There have been some grumblings from staunch fiscal conservatives that Trump hasn’t done enough yet to address the bloated federal budget, and Democrats have increasingly begun to use the growing budget deficit and national debt as a club against Trump, despite the glaring hypocrisy when one considers their spend-happy behavior when they hold the purse strings.
But it would appear that Trump is ready to finally address the massive size of the federal budget as he just instructed all of his cabinet members in a meeting Wednesday to “trim the fat” from their respective budgets by no less than five percent, as reported by Townhall.
“I’m going to ask each of you to come back with a five percent budget cut from your various departments — whether it’s a secretary or administrator or whatever — I’m going to ask everybody to come back with a five percent cut for our next meeting,” Trump informed his collection of cabinet officials.
.@POTUS: “I’m going to ask each of you to come back with a 5 percent budget cut from your various departments…I’m sure everybody at this table can do it.” https://t.co/oX1btZv7qZ pic.twitter.com/y1uKQi4wNr
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 17, 2018
“I think you’ll all be able to do it. There may be a special exemption, perhaps, I don’t know who that exemption would be,” Trump continued. “If you can do more than five — some of you will say ‘hey, I can do much more than five.'”
“You know, I’ve heard about the ‘Penny Plan’ for 15 years. One penny, every year, per dollar. One penny, every year, after four or five years, the country’s in good shape,” Trump said. “I’m saying, let’s not do the ‘Penny Plan,’ let’s do the five penny plan. I think you can do it.”
“So I’d like to have everyone sitting around the table, your incredible domains that you preside over so brilliantly, in some cases — some cases very well, some case brilliantly — I would like you to come back with a five percent cut. Get rid of the fat, get rid of the waste, and I’m sure you can do it. I’m sure everyone at this table can do it,” he added.
As for the “exemption” from the mandated five percent cut that Trump had mentioned, the most likely recipient of that would be the Defense Department, as Trump alluded to later in the meeting.
“We know what the new budget is for the Defense Department. It will probably be $700 billion. So it’s $716, it was $700, $716, but that’s a very substantial number, but it’s defense, it’s very important,” said Trump.
“I mean, to us, without defense, maybe the rest of it doesn’t really mean very much,” he added.
.@POTUS says new Department of Defense budget will likely be $700 billion:
"That's a very substantial number, but it's defense, it's very important to us." https://t.co/HZ6BISpcgW pic.twitter.com/6MkGTXH19c
— FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) October 17, 2018
The president also spoke at length during the cabinet meeting about his administration’s continued efforts to cut or roll back various federal “job-killing” regulations, another incredibly important aspect of “draining the swamp” that is a federal bureaucracy full of busy-bodies that poke their noses into the private matters of individuals and small businesses on a whole host of issues.
“We’re lifting the crushing federal burdens on farmers, ranchers, factory workers, energy producers and businesses of all types,” Trump said, while also mentioning the positive effect of the tax cuts and restructured trade deals.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 17, 2018
This is all quite incredible and desperately needed if our nation is going to prosper. To be sure, five percent may not sound like much at a glance, but it is a good start that will add up over time to significant sums, sums that could very well help reduce the budget deficit by nearly one-third.
It will certainly be interesting to see if every single department — except for defense — is able to trim five percent or more of their budgets. This fat-trimming is highly necessary if we are going to get spending under control and actually “drain the swamp” of the creatures and programs that suck up so much of our tax dollars.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
