Trillion. Nondefense and discretionary interest on the debt, a smaller fraction of that, but still obviously a big president andhe congress decide. The president came out on a joint session to the night and gave his outline of where things stand. What did you hear from President Trump and what do you think is missing from the budget so far . Guest i think he signaled a big fight over spending priorities, but not necessarily on the amount of spending and it overlooked the fastgrowing mandatory program. All the focus was on the discretionary part of the budget and as we look at the budget we need to turn attention to that. He called for a large increase in defense spending. That is the will as a result in additional dollars per it i heard a big fight could be brewing between the president and Congressional Republicans. We know that paul ryan and some of the others really want to go after some of those programs. That will put a lot of republican representatives under a difficult position. Wait until you see what happens when medicare and between speaker ryan and President Trump. In thereve been continue to be huge differences. I have to believe House Republicans are going to be pretty fighting fighting pretty seriously. When they get to medicare and medicaid and Social Security, it will be a huge problem. Host welcoming your comments and calls. Send us a tweet. Stand colander and robert bixby here. Int are we talking about terms of when we will see a budget. March 16 i think is the target day for that. That want the much more than a bear skeleton. Deadline oneal fix that. Congress will try to pass a budget resolution before that and picking up on stands comment comment i think one of the problems we have seen from the white house is if you are trying to pay for new initiatives, that is fine, but it still beats the budget and an unsustainable track. The socalled baseline. Budget willsidents have to do it is rising deficits few years. Xt on bob is exactly right. The u. S. Credit rating was downgraded because there was no plan to do with the medium or longterm deficit. There is now no plan again it looks like. Im expecting there will be consideration of u. S. Downgrade. Theres a debt ceiling deadline coming up in a month or so . March 15, the suspension of the debt ceiling expires. It looks like it wont my on be much of a problem until fall. If the debt ceiling is not raised and Mick Mulvaney is against raising the debt ceiling, we could have a huge fight in the fall over this issue and it could end up doing everything from potential default to a government shutdown. Host minus the obstacle that faces President Trump on defense spending, a sequester. How does that play into this and how will it be removed . I had a column that came out President Trump when he made the speech to Congress Said he wanted to increase defense spending and reduce domestic spending by the same amount. According to the law, you cannot do that. According to sequester law . Guest it is the budget control act. If used in more in defense spilling that spending, congress is supposed to raise the cap. Thise doubts about whether administration would actually implement that law. That is the president would toer the omb director not impose the sequester which would be a violation of the law. That brings up the point about what the president has been talking about with discretionary programs. They are governed by this budget cap law which means youre going to have to get democratic votes and the kind of proposals he is floated so far passingve trouble republicans. Done before is have bipartisan agreement. Increase decided to defense and nondefense by similar amounts. If you try to increase defense by a lot and cut the nondefense programs by a lot, probably bills would not have been passed in democrats could filibuster the appropriations bill so you deadot only looking at a soon crisis, but a shutdown of appropriations possibly in the fall. We have calls waiting period good morning, sylvia. Much forhank you so taking my call this morning. Roberta question for mr. Takes the and also a question for stan colyer. Mom. A single hear from theo about whatistration type of budget there will be four more military benefits in the area where they receive heir benefits and how is going to help Police Officers around the United States and firefighters around the United States do their jobs or have the tools to do their jobs more efficient and with the mayors this. Vernors together on host i will let you go there. As you to consider what she asked, i wanted to play some from President Trump tuesday. A budget that rebuilds the military, eliminates the defense. Equester [applause] then calls for one of the largest increases in National Defense spending in american history. The budget will also increasing increased funding for the veterans. Our veterans have delivered for this nation and now we must deliver for them. [applause] the challenges we faced as a nation are great, but our people are even greater. And none are greater braver than those who fight for america in uniform. Host a big applause for ending the defense sequester. Guaranteed a applause line. To get to the question we were asked, i suspect most of those dollars the president is proposing is going to go for cure met. That is buying procurement. That is buying weapon systems. In addition, cutbacks on the domestic side are certainly going to hit state and local government funding. Was goings a point i to make in response to our collar. Caller. Cutting Discretionary Spending domestic Discretionary Spending. Congress will make the decision on the appropriations bill, but if youre going to be severely pinching the domestic budget, it could have an effect on state and local grants for lawenforcement. So far will be note losing suspense defense spending by 54 billion dollars. Domestic programs, 264 billion 462 billion. Lets hear from anthony in arizona. Im going to speak quickly about the budget. These items that im going to address all affect the budget and the major thing right now is to give him time. Give President Trump time and i like to add to words. Time for what . Because he has to deal with these things. Mental institutions, education. [indiscernible] let you go. Youre breaking up. Sorry about that. We have ran from ohio. Caller thank you for taking my call. I want to make a comment about the amount of money that is being sent out of the United States to foreign governments. Youre on the air. Were listening. Caller that is foreign governments. All the ones we send money to can afford some of their own security and other measures and i would like to ask the gentleman to address that issue, including money that may be being sent to terrorist organizations of Different Countries or Different Countries that have terrorist organizations. I believe that trump will cut some of that and that will help our budget. If these gentlemen would address that issue i would appreciate it and im going to hang up and hear the response. It is a myth that foreign aid is a big problem in the budget. It is something that has been around a while. Is it is about 1 or a little less. Yes, we spend money overseas, but it is a tiny part of the budget and if you could eliminate it entirely, you would still have a huge debt. A lot of foreign aid is actually spent here come on factories and farm equipment. We are talking about having and a on american jobs tiny impact on budget. Host on the issue, secretary of herunning about the writes the white house signaled it will seek a massive 20 billion reduction for state development of a budget of over 50 billion. The highest cuts for any. Chumps abilityer deal with the this is one of the consequences that will be faced if youre trying to cut the. Ondefense programs that i think in the state department there will be a lot of pushback on this because the United States has a robust role of around robust role around the world. You also find a lot of support in the Defense Department for state Department Programs because they do work hand in glove around the nation. I mean around the world. Operatione a military. Very often after that, the state department will try to go in and try to work with the country involved in building up the economy and security of the country. These things altogether and it is difficult to cut one and not have an effect on the other. Host what is your basic approach to the economy and the budget . We have always argued for a balanced budget. We dont necessarily need one every year, but you should try a program that is sustainable over the longterm and weve tried to point out that our current policy is not sustainable. Of the increase in spending is projected over the coming decades is from the minotaur programs like medicare, Social Security, and medicaid because of the aging of the population and health care costs. The difference between that growing spending and our revenues that dont grow by much lead to the projected deficits. Of interest,item we have a question with Interest Rates rising come a few expect join deficit to reach one total gross interest to reach one foot in dollars 1 trillion . My estimate is if present trump gets everything he wants, youre looking at a annual increase of the deficit of about 1 trillion. How do people need to pay the National Debt . We dont really need to do that. We just need to make sure we can afford the debt that we have. We think about trying to repay, we have to get the gdp ratio stable. Go back to something we talked about a while ago. On the one hand Interest Rates are going up and on the other hand, Interest Rates are going up because we are downgraded in our credit rating. It is a potentially difficult situation and it does not look like anyone is paying attention to it the Trump Administration. Saying fiveline possible shots from the economy coming from washington. The other one could be Mick Mulvaney resigning because what he wants to do is not accepted by the Trump Administration. The positions he is taken in the past have been different. That will free up a Freedom Caucus to opposed created there are some potential timebombs that could look the situation. That happens because of the debt that is borrowed in the Interest Rates owed. It is not like Something Congress can go in and change and say were going to spend less on interest. It is what they are stuck with. Host lets hear from louisiana. My main concern is why do we consider Social Security money why is that part of the budget . The thoughts . Security is untouchable . Guest politically it is untouchable, but we will need to touch it at some point. The gap will get larger as the baby boom generation continues on into retirement years. Something is going to be done to either adjust future benefits or raise taxes or raise the payroll tax to close that gap. We cant just leave the program. The program is a federal program. It is a very important program, but right now it is facing a shortfall that will have to be addressed sooner or later by congress. Social security was added to the budget. It was issued by Lyndon Johnson initially. It was implemented by Richard Nixon and ever since then weve had the exact same question. We are going to have to face a question of whether we will make the commitment we made to seniors or if we will have to pull back and say we cannot afford it any longer. Think of the politics. As america ages, more people orl be on Social Security expected to get it and it will be increasingly difficult to cut benefits under those circumstances. Host a visual representation from robert bixby. Our veterans our Veterans Benefits included as well . The otherd be in category, the one that is going down. Part of thea major budget and it is not growing faster than the economy. Host it wont grow in the aftermath of afghanistan or iraq . Yes but it is not a major driver. I would like to address something about the defense budget. Back in january commissioned a study to check waste in the military. A 125 billionth of the and the name commission was for the transfer of the dod core business process. Did is webasically got contractors that get paid for not doing their full job like over in iraq. Thatsically also stated one million, 14,000 civilians, citizens, and contractors went back on their jobs. The smallest ultimate force we have had since world war ii of 1. 3 million troops. Trump is going after waste and fraud in all of the other domestic programs. I think he should start with the military. We will get some thoughts. Interestingaise questions. We actually dont know where this 4 billion number came from. Right now, we dont know where it is. Second, ive not understood why someone can understand and i sure sandwich in his School Lunch Program is a waste come a little buying additional clement for the military thats not going to be used is a waste. Some of the things we are already spending are unnecessary longer. Noted pentagon is a source of waste, fraud, and abuse. They often side the pentagon as a place for the money is well. Ccounted for you have to remedy there is no line item in the budget for waste, fraud, and abuse. Justin, welcome. I think Social Security is taken by the illegals because they dont pay for it and my sister had to wait three years stroke she bad would not have that insurance either. I would like to know why American People that have strokes and aids and cancer have to wait that long when an legal comes over here and they have insurance right off the bat. That into thee broader goal of the Trump Administration to repeal and replace obamacare and the potential costs involved. Lets try do tie that into the budget he is proposing. Act isthe formal care still up in the air. The big question is can you really do what the president said which is no one is going to lose his or her insurance or his or her benefits. And, pay less for it or get better care. The answer is almost certainly no. What kind of commitment are we making here. It is almost certainly what congress is finding is that people dont want to lose these benefits. Im deathly afraid of what is going to happen under these circumstances. What do we do with a budget situation that is not quite desperate, but is getting difficult and yet we are in a medical situation where we are saying we cannot afford to provide everyone the benefits they want. It is not surprising the president said last week no one i think this is one of the Key Issues Facing Congress and the budget. It hangs over everything. If we are talking about repealing and replacing, however were going to do it, they need to do it at the same time. Obamacare just repeal and have nothing to take its place. If you repeal it and try to develop something over time to replace it, i think it will probably turn into a mess because you would be pumping money trying to pump money into a system that has been repealed to make sure nobody lost Health Insurance until you have the new system. For lots of reasons, i think that would get even more expensive. I think if theyre going to do something on this, have a replacement plan in place, it really gets into a couple of issues hanging over the budget. Medicare, medicaid, and taxes. Raise taxes to pay for the program. One of the issues is what you do with the taxes that were raised in obamacare . What do you do about the medicare changes that were made in obamacare. The biggestprobably part because a big part of expansion of the medicaid. We have a lot of states wondering if that is repealed, what do we do about Medicaid Expansion . You have republicans, democrats, and governments governors alike wondering what is happening . That should be the first thing they resolved. Guest weve talked about how Discretionary Spending is going down. The center for Disease Control are all in the category. We dont know how they will be affected, but there have been great strides. Everyone is watching from cdc and nci and you want those to continue. It is not just providing the benefits, but the research that will make it possible for people to survive over the years and that is also in question. caller people pay into Social Security. Rich stop paying their think it should be because that thank you. Host we have not touched on taxes. The president , what did he lay out the other night. Guest 19 six was the time we had a last major tax form. 1986 was a last time we had a major tax reform. In the middle of a Conference Committee behind closed doors, there will be members of theyess tweeting out what are talking about. Individual tax reform could take longer. Host what does President Trump want to get done . He wants to lower taxes for corporations and individuals. It seems like there is a wideranging review working with a congress. I agree with stan. I think it will happen anytime soon. Theres a lot of different ideas of what tax form means and there are winners and losers. Slamdunk. An e