President Trump's First Budget

Each year the president and his top advisors put together a budget proposal for the country. The spending in the proposal indicates what the administration’s priorities will be for the following year. Despite the fact the Trump presidency has been unlike any other in my lifetime thus far, it is no different in this respect. Though the commotion has made this particular budget more anticipated than years past, President Trump’s first budget was recently released to much excitement. One of Trump’s biggest campaign promises to his supporters was to make America safer. His first budget proposal attempts to do this with a massive budget increase to the Department of Defense through decreases to other smaller departments. While giving more money …show more content…
Do we need more tanks and fighter jets? While there will always be a need for the development and purchase of new equipment, the likelihood of overspending has become impossible to ignore. You won’t hear military generals openly calling for new equipment like jets and tanks; they are vocal about the cost to maintain our vast supply of aging equipment. As we move to more unmanned equipment our current inventory of old technology only continues to grow. Does the largest employer in the world need to increase its manpower? Again, you won’t hear anyone calling for a massive influx of people needed in either the military or bureaucratic side from anyone. The president has even put a freeze on government hiring as many think the government already employees too many people. Perhaps the money will be used for expanded support for veterans? Nope. The Department of Veteran Affairs does not fall under the purview of the Defense Department and will be receiving their own budget increase to help better serve our veterans. Truly, the majority of what keeps citizens safe at home is the Department of Homeland Security, which will also be receiving its own budget increase. Government waste has clearly not eluded the Department of Defense. In a speech on May 24, 2001 to the American Enterprise Institute by then Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates he stated that “since 9/11, a near-doubling of the Pentagon’s modernization accounts – more than $700 billion over 10 years in new spending on procurement, research and development – has resulted in relatively modest gains in actual military capability.” So it appears this money will either be spent on buying more outdated equipment, research and development that is already arguably overfunded, or lost in the giant hole of