Trump budget poised to slash food stamps, Medicaid, other programs

WASHINGTON - The White House released President Trump's first full budget on Tuesday, a plan that will include a cut of more than $800 billion from the Medicaid program for the poor and reductions in other social spending.

The Medicaid cuts were part of a Republican healthcare bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in early May, which aims to gut the Obama administration's 2010 law that expanded insurance coverage and the government-run Medicaid program.

But the bill - and its politically sensitive cuts - faces an uncertain future in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Trump's initial budget outline for discretionary spending received a tepid response from Congress, which controls the purse strings, and, ultimately, government spending. He said in March he wanted to boost defense spending and slash foreign aid.

His full budget will include his plans for mandatory programs, and was expected to propose cuts for means-tested programs for low-income people, such as food stamps and rental assistance, according to some media reports.

It is unlikely that Congress, which passes its own budgets and appropriates public money, would approve a raft of cuts to social programs.

The budget will propose deep cuts to Environmental Protection Agency grants to state and local governments.

It will include a plan for $200 billion in funding to encourage state and local governments to boost spending on roads, bridges, airports and other infrastructure programs, and a S25 billion plan to give parents six weeks of paid leave after the birth or adoption of a child. *