President Trump’s newly released budget appears to be dead on arrival on Capitol Hill.
The White House is asking for $8 billion to build a border wall, but Democrats are promising to block the effort.
The $4.7 trillion budget calls for cuts to domestic programs like Medicare and Medicaid sharp increases in defense spending.
Russ Vought is the White House’s Acting Budget Director.
He says the proposal also includes an extra $8 billion for a border wall and nearly $4 billion to pay back money snatched from military construction projects as part of the president’s national emergency.
“We’re taking steps with the national emergency to find pots of money to be used towards the wall, we also think it’s necessary to backfill some of those accounts,” said Vought.
Congressional Democrats say much of the budget, including the wall request, will fail in Congress.
The White House says border security is just a small fraction of the budget which aims to cut from domestic programs including welfare.
Congress will begin hearings on the president’s budget requests this week.
