White House Reveals Details on Military and Wall Ahead of Budget Proposal

NYTimes says the White House has released some info about the upcoming Trump budget proposals.

The Wall and the Military are discussed.....

The article seems to be a little snippy too, like somebody doesn't like something.

? Well ? now what?

White House Reveals Details on Military and Wall Ahead of Budget Proposal

The White House released some details of two of the larger components of the 2018 budget it will send to Congress on Tuesday. Money it wants to spend on the military and a southern border wall will be part of a wish list that will serve as the opening bid in negotiations over funding the government next year.

A beefed-up version of the “skinny” budget President Trump released in March is expected to include long-term projections on spending for government services, tax revenues and economic forecasts. It will also shed light for the first time on how the Trump administration plans to address funding for programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

As Mr. Trump learned during last month’s negotiations for funding the government through the 2017 fiscal year, the White House often does not get its way when dealing with Congress, particularly when votes from Democrats are required. Congressional budget committees are expected to craft their own budget proposals in June, and many Republicans have already signaled that the draconian cuts Mr. Trump wants to make to domestic programs are nonstarters.

a reply to: xuenchen

and many Republicans have already signaled that the draconian cuts Mr. Trump wants to make to domestic programs are nonstarters.

Sounds like many Republicans have gotten too used to their under the table , additional incomes...

im going to read that and i dont want to dog trump more than i already do but i am going to ask cause i honestly want to know, not because im talking #

the wall was his big plan right? at least 1 of his major campaign 'promises', if you want to use that word and it was supposed to be started pretty much straight away right?
this article is talking about the 2018 budget and the wall is part of it?

what happened there?

make no mistake i dont want the wall and dont agree with it. i just want to know why it is in the budget for 2018 when i thought(could be wrong) it was supposed to be underway already

a reply to: TinySickTears

You need to research how the federal budget works, when it is submitted and how it gets approved. Google can be your friend.

THE 2018 budget starts Oct 2017. Since the present budget the US gov is operating under was submitted by Obama it contained no money for the Wall. Trump will certainly submit his budget containing that funding program. We will all see what the final budget looks like hopefully in a few months.

originally posted by: TinySickTears

what happened there?

make no mistake i dont want the wall and dont agree with it. i just want to know why it is in the budget for 2018 when i thought(could be wrong) it was supposed to be underway already

It's the speed of government. Budgets operate 2 years in advance. Getting it in 2018 is actually pretty impressive, because the President has very limited ability to create change before 2 years out. That means Obama's budgets run from 2011 to 2018. Trumps will (mostly, there's some fudge factor early on) run from 2019 to 2022/2026.

I'll say upfront, I'm opposed to the wall. I think that what Trump is proposing is a massive boondoggle waiting to happen. Getting it in the 2018 budget would be a serious follow through on his promise though.

ok. thanks for the lesson.
i absolutely do not understand how government budgets work.

now what about the other part of my question.

didnt trump say the wall was going to be started pretty much straight away?
does he not understand government budgets either or did something block the wall until 2018?

a reply to: TinySickTears

The U.S. Federal "Accounting Year" starts Oct 1st and ends Sept 30th every year.

They call it a "Fiscal Year".

a reply to: TinySickTears

Prior to the beginning of physical construction there has to be a lot of other activities such as land purchase, surveys, project budgets and contractor bidding. None of that is fast. Made even slower by politicians. Trump understands very well these project components but he may be overly optimistic about the political side. Trump is not a king he cannot just declare the wall funded and begin.

I suspect that others who don't like the wall idea will oppose it strongly and even may keep it from happening. Its not Trump's fault if he trys. If the wall is politically blocked then it will be the voters who have the final word.

a reply to: whywhynot

Even if he got the ok politically to do it, Congress isn't going to approve anything that isn't detailed out even if they wanted to. What is there so far that shows what the costs are going to be for building that wall?? Like you said there are tons of things that have to be done before you even start on the wall itself. All that stuff is going to have to be figured out and bids made. Otherwise it's like throwing massive amounts of money into a hole and hoping it's going to fill it up when you can't even see the bottom of it. That's a risky move and congress isn't going to throw all that money away for something that may not even be completed. That's money they could be wasting on themselves or hookers or skimming or something. They aren't take chances with it.

How much defense spending is enough? The US already spends 10 times more than all the other countries of the world combined. How much is enough???

originally posted by: TinySickTears
ok. thanks for the lesson.
i absolutely do not understand how government budgets work.

now what about the other part of my question.

didnt trump say the wall was going to be started pretty much straight away?
does he not understand government budgets either or did something block the wall until 2018?

In government terms that basically is straight away. If I remember correctly, Trump made several mentions to needing to get funding in place. He's actually gone back on some of his funding pledges too in order to get it into the normal budget process.

There's campaign rhetoric and there's how things work. For as much a failure as a wall is likely to be, Trump's going about implementing it in the right way.

originally posted by: mOjOm
a reply to: whywhynot

Even if he got the ok politically to do it, Congress isn't going to approve anything that isn't detailed out even if they wanted to. What is there so far that shows what the costs are going to be for building that wall?? Like you said there are tons of things that have to be done before you even start on the wall itself. All that stuff is going to have to be figured out and bids made. Otherwise it's like throwing massive amounts of money into a hole and hoping it's going to fill it up when you can't even see the bottom of it. That's a risky move and congress isn't going to throw all that money away for something that may not even be completed. That's money they could be wasting on themselves or hookers or skimming or something. They aren't take chances with it.

I agree with what you say, however the government does large projects all the time. These project usually are over budget and completed past schedule but what's new about that? I believe the determining factor will be political. The D's will not support it no matter what. NOT a swipe at the D's just a statement of truth. If it gets passed included in the budget it will only because sufficient pork is spread around, deals are cut, or the last nuclear option is exercised. None of this is good of us. Very sad.

TERM LIMITS

a reply to: whywhynot

True, Dems won't go for it ever. But then there is always some strange way to push this kind of stuff through if they want it bad enough. Either they slip it in some other bill or something.

Another issue I have with it, is that how can there be money already being issued for something when there hasn't even been any planning done??? I don't mean just some brainstorming or throwing ideas around, but serious thought going into the type of wall, how it's engineered, it's upkeep, even the major planning of roads for equipment just to build the damn thing. All that stuff takes a lot of planning.

It's not like he's going to ask for just a little money simply to get a solid plan together and the blueprints made and all the pre building figured out. He's going to want some starting money too and get things rolling. But has anyone really had time to plan out something this big and expensive??? You can't just whip something out like it's no big deal. There is literally years worth of planning and property to negotiate, a major river running down the middle of where to build, ideas about construction and management, etc. You can't just rush something like this or it's going to be a total f*ck up. We don't need to be paying for another giant f*ck up project just so Trump can say he made good on a promise.

originally posted by: whywhynot
a reply to: TinySickTears

Prior to the beginning of physical construction there has to be a lot of other activities such as land purchase, surveys, project budgets and contractor bidding. None of that is fast. Made even slower by politicians. Trump understands very well these project components but he may be overly optimistic about the political side. Trump is not a king he cannot just declare the wall funded and begin.

I suspect that others who don't like the wall idea will oppose it strongly and even may keep it from happening. Its not Trump's fault if he trys. If the wall is politically blocked then it will be the voters who have the final word.

Land purchases? Don't you mean land seizures. Because that's what will have to happen in order to get the wall he wants built. The government will have to take land from some people. I thought most of ATS was against government taking land from citizens. I guess I was wrong though.

www.cbsnews.com...

www.usatoday.com...

a reply to: xuenchen

There is hardly any substance to the release beyond what we already knew. Just a very broad and tentative breakdown of how much to be spent on this, how much on that. No details, no actual figures.

This is just something put out by the White House media office to make people believe some work is actually getting done amongst all the scandals, failures and pratfalls of Your Hero and his minions.

The Times, being a reputable and conscientious newspaper, reports it, but doesn't give it much comment. Because it's not news, just a press release.