The U.S. Department of Transportation and other federal agencies have to come up with a 5% reduction in their budgets for next year, President Donald Trump told his Cabinet during a recent meeting at the White House.
“I’m going to ask each of you to come back with a 5% budget cut from your various departments. Whether it’s a secretary, an administrator, whatever, I’m going to ask everybody with a 5% cut for our next meeting. I think you’ll all be able to do it,” the president said Oct. 17.
“Get rid of the fat. Get rid of the waste. And I’m sure you can do it. I’m sure everybody at this table can do it. It will have a huge impact,” added Trump, whose order came shortly after the Treasury Department indicated the deficit was $779 billion in fiscal 2018, which was $113 billion more than in the last fiscal year.
Several days later, speaking to reporters in Nevada, Trump indicated Republican leaders were working on a tax cut proposal that would target the middle-income bloc nationwide. The president did not expound on the plan, which he said would likely be produced shortly before the midterm elections Nov. 6. Congress is in recess through mid-November. A GOP-led tax overhaul was enacted last year.
At the White House meeting, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao emphasized that officials at her department had withdrawn nearly two dozen regulations that “didn’t make sense, that were nonsensical, that were overly burdensome, that were basically red tape.”