JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
The White House has already made a lot of changes to how the government spends money, slashing the federal workforce and putting entire agencies on the chopping block. But soon we will get a glimpse of what else President Trump wants to do when the White House releases its annual budget proposal. NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben is here in the studio to explain why this year's budget may be more consequential than most. Hi there.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Hey, Juana.
SUMMERS: So, Danielle, what can you tell us about what we expect the White House to release?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, we expect something soon, but details are still sketchy, but it could be what's known as a skinny budget. Now, that's a sort of outline that presidents sometimes release before they release those big, thick, full budget books.
SUMMERS: Right.
KURTZLEBEN: Often, a skinny budget gives us just the broadest strokes of how much money is going to go to each department or agency, X billion dollars for Defense, X billion for Housing and Urban Development and so on. Now, these skinny budgets from President Biden and also from Trump's first term, they've only included discretionary spending. So that leaves out the big-ticket items like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, not to mention revenue projections. Now, that's a big omission because those safety net programs make up a solid majority of federal spending. But we'll get the White House's outlook on all of that when they release a full budget, and right now, we don't know when that's coming.
SUMMERS: But then, Congress has the power of the purse. They come up with the spending bills, as we both know. So how much does the president's budget actually matter?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, it matters first of all in the sense that it's required by law. Now, beyond that, most years, reporters like me will tell you that the budget matters because it's a list of the president's priorities.
SUMMERS: Right.
KURTZLEBEN: It's his wish list, or as people say around Washington, it's a political document. But budget experts have told me that this budget may be more meaningful than usual. I talked to Jessica Riedel. She's at the right-leaning Manhattan Institute. She's also done fiscal policy for two Republican presidential campaigns. What she said is that Trump just right now has this huge amount of power over Congress.
JESSICA RIEDEL: The president has a tighter grip on the Republican Congress now than he did in 2017, which may make Congress more likely to stick to the president's proposals when they're writing the budget.
KURTZLEBEN: Now, Trump not only has Republican majorities in both houses, albeit slim majorities. He also has a stranglehold on the GOP. He's remade the party. He throws his weight around in primaries, and members of Congress know that.
SUMMERS: I mean, this White House and allies of the White House have spent just a lot of time talking about cutting spending, including with the effort led by Elon Musk known as DOGE. How does that fit into all of this?
KURTZLEBEN: You know, I asked Riedel about that, and she said that's another reason this budget might provide more insight than in a typical year.
RIEDEL: DOGE has already begun enacting spending savings that are supposed to go through Congress unilaterally. And the president's budget may essentially provide a preview of what DOGE will attempt to enact unilaterally, even if Congress doesn't act.
SUMMERS: So, Danielle, tell us, what will you be looking for in this year's presidential budget?
KURTZLEBEN: One thing is a split between defense and non-defense spending. Trump cares a lot about defense, so does he up that spending? And then in turn, does he propose cutting things like scientific research, the National Weather Service, the Education Department, which he has said he wants to get rid of? But that said a skinny budget would leave open some big and important questions, for example, on entitlements. Here's Joel Friedman at the left-leaning Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.
JOEL FRIEDMAN: The president has said he doesn't want to cut Medicaid. But Congress is now in the process of putting together this package that has a large, very deep cuts in Medicaid, threatening health insurance for millions of folks. So the question is, will the administration embrace that as part of its budget proposals?
KURTZLEBEN: So even after all of this, there's going to be a lot more budget news to watch this year.
SUMMERS: That's NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. Thank you.
KURTZLEBEN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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