Trump’s high-spending budget reverses longtime GOP dogma

President Donald Trump unveiled a $4.4 trillion budget plan Monday that envisions steep cuts to America's social safety net but mounting spending on the military, formally retreating from last year's promises to balance the federal budget. The president's spending outline for the first time acknowledges that the Republican tax overhaul passed last year would add billions to the deficit and not "pay for itself" as Trump and his Republican allies asserted.

5 things to know about Trump’s $4.4 trillion budget

James Knable, left, and Jeffrey Freeland, right, help to unpack copies of the President's FY19 Budget after it arrived at the House Budget Committee office on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Feb. 12, 2018. James Knable, left, and Jeffrey Freeland, right, help to unpack copies of the President's FY19 Budget after it arrived at the House Budget Committee office on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Feb. 12, 2018.

Trump’s $4.4 trillion budget moves deficit sharply higher

President Donald Trump unveiled a $4.4 trillion budget for next year that heralds an era of $1 trillion-plus federal deficits and - unlike the plan he released last year - never comes close to promising a balanced ledger even after 10 years. The growing deficits reflect, in great part, the impact of last year's tax overhaul, which is projected to cause federal tax revenue to drop.

President Trump’s $4 trillion budget helps move deficit sharply higher

President Donald Trump is proposing a $4 trillion-plus budget for next year that projects a $1 trillion or so federal deficit and - unlike the plan he released last year - never comes close to promising a balanced federal ledger even after 10 years. And that's before last week's $300 billion budget pact is added this year and next, showering both the Pentagon and domestic agencies with big increases.

Trump’s $4 trillion budget helps move deficit sharply higher

President Donald Trump is proposing a $4 trillion-plus budget for next year that projects a $1 trillion or so federal deficit and - unlike the plan he released last year - never comes close to promising a balanced federal ledger even after 10 years. And that's before last week's $300 billion budget pact is added this year and next, showering both the Pentagon and domestic agencies with big increases.

Trump to submit outdated budget

President Donald Trump's budget director said the budget that the administration will send to Congress today will seek to move some of the billions of dollars in extra spending that Congress approved last week to areas that will reflect the president's priorities. The original plan was for Trump's new budget to slash domestic agencies even further than last year's proposal, but instead it will land in Congress three days after he signed a two-year budget agreement that wholly rewrites both plans.

Trump budget plan already outdated after budget deal

In a twist on Washington's truism about presidential budgets being D.O.A., President Donald Trump's 2019 fiscal plan due Monday is dead before it gets there. The original plan was for Trump's new budget to slash domestic agencies even further than last year's proposal, but instead it will land in Congress three days after he signed a two-year budget agreement that wholly rewrites both plans.

FEMA contractor says she is a “scapegoat” in controversy over canceled contract

The woman at the heart of a controversy surrounding a cancelled $156 million contract to provide 30 million meals for victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico says she is being turned into a scapegoat for problems with how FEMA handles contracts with small businesses. House Democrats have asked for the Oversight Committee to subpoena FEMA officials to explain why the contract was issued to a small company called Tribute Contracting, LLC run by Atlanta-based business owner Tiffany Brown - the sole employee listed for that business.

Midnight shutdown creeps closer as Congress debates budget

With a midnight government shutdown creeping closer, both Republicans and Democrats grappled with internal party divisions in advance of hoped-for showdown votes Thursday night on a massive budget deal. Frustrations mounted as GOP Sen. Rand Paul held up voting on the broad measure in hopes of obtaining a recorded vote on reversing its spending increases.

Other side pushes Democratic vision

In this July 26, 2017, file photo, Rep. Joe Kennedy , D-Mass., smiles on Capitol Hill in Washington. WASHINGTON -- Soaring stock prices under President Donald Trump have boosted investor portfolios and corporate profits but have not eased the economic anxieties of middle-class families, Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy III said Tuesday night in the Democratic response to Trump's State of the Union address.

Powerful GOP Appropriations chair Frelinghuysen to retire

Veteran Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, the powerful chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, has announced he will not seek re-election. The New Jersey Republican was facing his first competitive re-election race in decades and joins a growing roster of GOP veterans who are heading for the exits.

Andrew McCabe steps down as right-wing crows over his scalp

Andrew McCabe, the deputy director of the FBI and a man frequently targeted by President Donald Trump, has stepped down from his position. Although McCabe will remain on the FBI payroll until he can retire in March with full pension benefits, he announced that he is "stepping aside" on Monday, according to NBC News .

Strong health sign-ups under Obamacare encourage Democrats

Republicans on the campaign trail this year will be eager to tout the potential benefits of their tax cut plan. Failed efforts by congressional Republicans last year to repeal former President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act exposed not only deep divisions within the party but also revealed core benefits of the law that millions of Americans now take for granted.

Collins’ vote for GOP tax bill will worsen US income inequality

Sen. Susan Collins explained her vote to pass the recent tax bill citing the expert advice she received from Glenn Hubbard, dean of the Columbia Business School, and Douglass Holtz-Eakin, a Republican policy adviser and president of the American Action Forum. "Even the joint committee on taxation has projected that the tax bill would stimulate the economy to produce hundreds of billions of additional revenue.