"And I think for the first time in a long time, you have an administration that is looking at the compassion of both sides of the equation," Mick Mulvaney said. | Getty Mulvaney: Trump's budget shows 'compassion' to supporters

Mick Mulvaney, the White House budget director, pushed back Sunday against critics of President Donald Trump's budget proposal, saying it shows compassion to the voters who elected Trump.

"The president knows who his voters are. His voters are folks who pay taxes as well. And I think for the first time in a long time, you have an administration that is looking at the compassion of both sides of the equation," Mulvaney said on NBC's "Meet the Press."


"Could I, as a budget director, look at the coal miner in West Virginia and say, 'I want you please to give some of your money to the federal government so that I can give it to the National Endowment for the Arts?'" Mulvaney explained. "I just think we finally got to the point in the administration where we couldn't do that."

The budget director also pushed back on criticism that Trump's budget would do little to reduce the nation's debt, saying the White House hopes to balance the budget over the next decade.

"No, we won't be able to balance the budget this year, but we're working on trying to get it to balance within the 10-year budget window, which is what Republicans in the House and the Senate have traditionally done in the last couple of years," Mulvaney said.