The director of the Office of Management and Budget said Thursday that President Trump would “absolutely” keep his campaign trail promise not to cut entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security in the federal budget.
On the day the Trump administration released its budget blueprint, OMB Director Mick Mulvaney told reporters that, though the entitlements weren’t in what some call the “skinny” first draft budget, Trump would honor his campaign promise not to touch entitlements.
“The President is absolutely going to keep the promises he kept on the campaign trail,” Mulvaney said during a White House press briefing. “Again, you will see no reference to Social Security here, no reference to Medicare here, no reference to Medicaid here, or any of the other mandatory programs, what some people call entitlement programs, because that’s not what this budget is. This is the discretionary part of the budget, half of which, as you know, is defense, and the other half is everything else, the alphabet soup of government. So just because it’s not here doesn’t mean we’re dodging the issue.”
Mulvaney also seemed to signal that the White House was open to negotiation on some of the more unpopular aspects of the budget.
“I’ve been on the Hill enough to know that some of these would be very unpopular,” he said. “Keep in mind, the President is in a unique position.”
Senators and congressmen, he said, were “always dealing with special interests from back home and dealing with lobbyists back home.”
“The President is beholden to none of that,” he continued. “The President has drafted a budget for the entire nation because that’s who he sees himself as representing. He did not ask lobbyists for input on this. He did not ask special interests for input on this. And he certainly didn’t focus on how these programs might impact a specific congressional district. But we know that going into it, and again the message we are sending to the Hill is we want more money for the things the President has talked about – defense being the top one, national security, and don’t want to add to the budget deficit.
“If Congress has another way to do that, we’re happy to talk to them about it,” he said.