Trump Budget Director: Trump’s Massive Cuts To Medicaid, Food Stamps Show ‘Compassion’ To Taxpayers

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney defended President Donald Trump’s drastic cuts to entitlement programs to pay for increased military spending, a border wall and large tax cuts that would significantly benefit the wealthy, by arguing his first federal budget that provides “compassion” for taxpayers.

Mulvaney said Trump’s proposed budget, which would cut Medicaid by $800 billion, nutritional assistance by $192 billion, and $272 billion from welfare programs overall, looks “at the budget through the eyes of the taxpayer.”

“If I can look you in the eye and say I’m going to take this money from you so I can help this injured vet, I can do that in good conscience,” he said. “I am a lot less comfortable to the point of not wanting to look you in the eye and say, ‘Look, I need to take this money from you to give to this person over here who really isn’t disabled but is getting a disabled benefit or this person over here who is supposed to use the money to go to school but isn’t actually going.”

Mulvaney told reporters on Tuesday that the government would “no longer measure compassion by the number of programs or the number of people on those programs, but by the number of people we help get off of those programs.”

“That is the part of the budget that deals with American greatness,” he insisted.

“You have to have compassion for folks who are receiving the federal funds, but also you have to have compassion for folks who are paying it,” Mulvaney said.

Watch Mulvaney’s press conference, below.