President Donald Trump said he believes the extra $54 billion dollars he has proposed spending on the U.S. military will be offset by a stronger economy as well as cuts in other areas
Carnival floats depicting US president Donald Trump and the Statue of Liberty take part in Duesseldorf, Germany. Pic/AFP
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Washington: President Donald Trump said he believes the extra $54 billion dollars he has proposed spending on the U.S. military will be offset by a stronger economy as well as cuts in other areas.
"I think the money is going to come from a revved up economy," Trump said in a Fox News interview broadcast on Tuesday, hours before he was to address a joint session of Congress.
"I mean you look at the kind of numbers we're doing, we were probably GDP of a little more than 1 percent and if I can get that up to 3 or maybe more, we have a whole different ball game. It's a whole different ball game."
Trump is seeking what he called a "historic" increase in defence spending, but ran into immediate opposition from Republicans in Congress who must approve his plan and said it was not enough to meet the military's needs. The proposed rise in the Pentagon budget to $603 billion comes as the United States has wound down major wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and remains the world's strongest military power.
A White House budget official, who outlined the plan on a conference call with reporters, said the administration would propose "increasing defence by $54 billion or 10 percent."
That represents the magnitude of the increase over budget caps Congress put in place in 2011. The defence boost would be balanced by slashing the same amount from non-defence spending, including a large reduction in foreign aid, the White House budget official said. The rise would be slightly higher than the country's current 2.5 percent rate of inflation.
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