The US President Donald Trump has proposed a significant increase in defense spending “in competition with Russia”. Separately, he considered it necessary to allocate half a billion dollars to fight the “harmful influence” of Russia.

The President did not forget about the wall on the border with Mexico — he asks for more than 8 billion dollars. Trump’s draft budget will face opposition in Congress — they already say that “it was not worth spending paper on it.”

Trump on Monday presented the draft budget for fiscal year 2020-it will begin on October 1, 2019. The document entitled “Budget for a better America” suggests an increase in total spending compared to 2019 by almost 5%.

It will be $ 4.74 trillion against 4.5 trillion in the previous period. The White House has planned revenues of $ 3.64 trillion in 2020, so the budget deficit will be $ 1.1 trillion.

The price of protection from Russia

The budget implies a significant increase in defense spending. Trump proposes to allocate $ 718 billion-by 5%, or $ 33 billion more than in the budget-2019.

“The budget provides the necessary resources for the defense Ministry to protect the country, to ensure that it remains an outstanding military power in the world; to maintain a balance in key regions in favor of America and to promote the world order that is most in the interests of the United States,” the document says.

The priority — “strategic competition with China and Russia,” emphasize the White house. The draft budget envisages the purchase of 110 fighters, 12 warships, as well as two large “experimental” vessels.

Increasing the Pentagon’s budget will allow for more readiness checks and training of personnel, to invest in new technologies, including the allocation of 208 million dollars for the joint center for artificial intelligence in the Ministry of defense. In addition, the Trump administration expects to develop American space forces, the decree on the creation of which Trump signed on June 18, 2018.

More 9.6 billion dollars the President proposes to allocate to the operation of the United States cyber command. In late February, it talked about the operation against the Russian “Internet research Agency” (also known as the “Troll factory”) in St. Petersburg during the midterm elections in the United States in 2018.

The special Commission of the Congress, which analyzed the national defense strategy of the United States, asked to increase the funding of the defense Ministry last fall. Her report noted that the government is not sufficiently engaged in the development of the US armed forces, despite the fact that Russia and China are increasing their military potential.

The American military, according to the Commission, lacks innovation and advantages. Another item of the budget that is directly related to Russia and involves an increase in costs is the fight against Russian “harmful influence”.

$ 500 million trump proposed to send to the countries of Europe, Eurasia and Central Asia to ensure common security and protect the territorial integrity of the US allies. These funds should also help partner countries to avoid the use of Russian military equipment “and eliminate weaknesses in the macroeconomic environment that the Russian government seeks to use”. The document clarifies that it is, in particular, about the dependence of some countries on Russian energy.

What proposed to cut

The White House at the same time argue that no one President of the United States has not carried out so many cuts, and that the result in the next ten years will be saving 2.2 trillion dollars.

The state Department and the Agency for international development Trump proposed to allocate $ 40 billion — 23% less than was budgeted for 2019.

Most of all, the reduction in costs will affect the environmental protection Agency – it is expected to reduce its funding by 31%.

The budget envisages a decrease in the US aid to other countries by $ 13 billion.

The document also refers to the reduction of non-defense spending to 543 billion dollars. This is 9% or $ 54 billion less than was pledged for these purposes in the 2019 financial year. More than $ 1 trillion is expected to reduce funding for Medicaid health insurance for the poor and disabled.

Trump also wants to cut spending on food and housing aid by $ 327 billion and cut funding for environmental protection and foreign aid programs.

Money for the daughter’s Fund

Trump also offered $ 1 billion to “encourage employers to invest in childcare programs for working families”. It is a program lobbied by the daughter and Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump.

The draft budget proposes a one-time allocation of money for this program, which is supposed to improve the access of poor people to health care. According to the Institute of economic policy, the average payment for a full parental leave varies from $ 4,000 per year to $ 22,600, depending on the family’s place of residence and the age of the child.

During the 2016 presidential race, Ivanka Trump has already taken similar initiatives. At that time, it was a proposal to pay for a six-week parental leave for both the father and the mother. In this case, the funds would be deducted from the future pension. However, at that time this proposal did not receive support in Congress.

Child care is expected to be an important issue in the presidential campaign. Thus, Senator Elizabeth Warren, nominated for the President from the Democratic Party, has already announced its plan to subsidize parental leave — through the introduction of a new tax for multi-millionaires.

What with wall

Trump asked for $ 8.6 billion to build a border wall with Mexico. This is six times more than in the past two years allocated for this purpose by Congress. At the end of 2018 the dispute of Congressmen – Democrats with Trump due to the construction of the wall resulted in a partial government shutdown for lack of funding — “shutdown”. It lasted 35 days and was the longest in the US history. Money on the wall Trump has not received.

Now he decided to introduce a state of emergency to spend on the construction of funds from the budget of the Ministry of defense. Congress is going to vote to repeal the measure this week, but trump has promised to veto any such decision.

Democrats in Congress have already criticized the new draft budget – most likely, they will not accept it. “The President Trump has somehow managed to prepare a budget even more untied from reality than budgets over the past two years,” democratic Congresswoman Nita Lowey, Chairman of the house appropriations Committee, said.

And democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Senate appropriations Committee, said that Trump’s plan “is not worth the paper on which it is printed.”