President Trump unveiled his budget this week and it’s being met with mixed reactions from Virginia lawmakers.
The president is proposing massive cuts to safety net programs like Medicaid and Meals on Wheels in order to pay for a defense buildup. He also wants to slash the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget by thirty percent. Southwest Virginia Republican Morgan Griffith represents coal country and isn’t a big fan of the EPA, but he says he’s willing to work with Democrats to reform the agency instead of supporting such a drastic budget cut.
“If people don’t want to cut, I’d be happy to do some rearranging, where you take more of the people out of D.C. and move them into the field to be helping people solve problems with water and sewers.”
The president’s budget also calls for killing the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund, which even Republicans in the region oppose. Here’s Virginia Congressman Scott Taylor.
“I don’t agree with it. I think it’s a national treasure and I don’t think it should be cut.”
Democrats say the budget is a nonstarter. The president went back on his campaign promise not to touch entitlement programs, and proposed cutting Medicaid by more than $600 billion over a decade. Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner says that would hit Virginia particularly hard.
“As a former governor this is just a massive transfer of responsibility from the federal government to the states. Every governor, regardless of party, should be screaming bloody murder about what this will do to state Medicaid budgets all across the country.”
Lawmakers in both parties are now in the driver’s seat when it comes to writing the nation’s spending bills but President Trump will have the final say because he now is wielding a veto pen, which has critics worried the government could face a shutdown this fall if lawmakers drastically rework the president's priorities.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.