AP: Trump Sends Congress $4.1T Spending Plan

The Latest on President Donald Trump’s budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 (all times eastern):

11 a.m.

President Donald Trump has sent Congress a $4.1 trillion spending plan that proposes to eliminate the deficit in a decade while protecting Social Security and Medicare.

But to achieve balance, Trump is seeking sharp cuts in a variety of programs for the poor from Medicaid to food stamps and disability payments.

Administration officials say they want to tighten work requirements to get millions of people off government support programs and back into the labor force, saying that will help them achieve their ambitious goal of boosting economic growth on a sustained basis to 3 percent annual gains.

The submission will set off months of debate in Congress. Democrats have already voiced strong opposition to the plan, and even Republicans are wary of the political dangers in Trump’s draconian cuts.

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10:35 a.m.

Top GOP leaders in Congress are praising President Donald Trump’s budget plan for promising a balanced federal ledger over time.

The budget relies on faster economic growth and steep cuts to programs for the poor in a bid to balance the government’s books over the next decade.

House Speaker Paul Ryan says he is pleased the budget projects a balance and says he’s never encountered a presidential budget that people didn’t declare “dead on arrival.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told colleagues that the Trump plan — unlike any of President Barack Obama’s budget blueprints — “actually achieves balance.”

McConnell also praised the plan for “building on the progress” made earlier this month is a 2017 spending plan that made down payments of Trump proposals to boost defense and border security.

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3 a.m.

President Donald Trump is sending Congress a $4.1 trillion spending plan that relies on faster economic growth and steep cuts in a range of support programs for low-income individuals to balance the government’s books over the next decade.

The proposed budget, for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, was being delivered to Congress Tuesday, setting off an extended debate in which Democrats are already attacking the administration for trying to balance the budget on the backs of the poor. Lawmakers from both parties have said major changes will be needed as the measure moves through Congress.

The proposal projects that this year’s deficit will rise to $603 billion, up from the actual deficit of $585 billion last year.