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Written by Tharushan Fernando
President Donald Trump plans to increase defense spending by 10% in his proposed budget plan for 2018.
The blueprint seeks to increase defense spending by $54Bn. The increase will come out of deep cuts in other avenues.
The president has consulted government agencies about his plans and will present his budget to Congress in May. Between now and then, he needs to identify where the agencies can make savings and work out what he does with tax reform.
Speaking at the White House during a meeting with state governors on Monday morning, Mr Trump said: “We’re going to do more with less and make the government lean and accountable.”
The president said the budget will focus on “military, safety, economic development”.
“It will include an historic increase in defence spending to rebuild the depleted military of the United States of America at a time we most need it,” he said.
Military spending has declined over the recent past due to budgetary battles in Congress that led to a spending freeze on defence. President Trump has also said that he would spend “big” on infrastructure like roads and rails, but he has not yet revealed his tax plans.
According to reports the Environmental Protection Agency and The State Department are gonna be hit with massive cuts.
Guns Blazing
The US already out-spends its closest rivals when it comes to military spending. According to reports the US accounts for more than a third of global spending .
In 2016 the US had a defence budget of around $597 Billion. An amount that can only be matched by the next 14 countries put together.
China is second in defence spending (with a budget of $145.8 billion) but is less that a third of the U.S budget.
A summarized look at the leaders in Defense spending
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