To fulfill a campaign promise to leave Social Security<br />and Medicare — which represent more than 40 percent of annual federal spending — untouched while constructing an expensive border wall, Mr. Trump went after a relatively small pot of money, discretionary spending, goring Republicans’ pet programs in the process.<br />But it is striking to read Mr. Trump’s budget and see clearly mixed messages from the opening pages delivered by Mr. Mulvaney, who praised the budget as a debt crusher,<br />and from Mr. Trump, who emphasized his increases in military spending.<br />Congress could have eliminated every penny of domestic spending at its annual discretion this year,<br />and it would not have balanced the federal budget, according to Congressional Budget Office projections, much less rid the nation of its nearly $20 trillion in government debt — which Mr. Trump told voters he could do easily in eight years.<br />In that time, spending on people 65 and older who receive Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid<br />and military and federal civilian retirement income will rise from 37 percent of federal spending in 2017 to 45 percent in 10 years.
