Lawmakers React To Trump's First Budget As Russia Investigation Heats Up
WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork) -- The Trump White House has unveiled its first budget, saying it's geared towards the American taxpayer.
Budget Director Mick Mulvaney laid out the over $4 trillion plan as the president's 2018 budget.
As CBS2's Dick Brennan reports, the administration seeks a ten percent increase in defense spending, adds $2.6 billion for border security, and has a provision for paid parental leave -- but doesn't touch Social Security of Medicare.
"I think for years and years we simply looked at the budget from in terms of the folks on the back end of the program," Mulvaney said. "We haven't spent nearly enough time focusing on the people who pay the taxes."
Critics say the budget cuts Medicaid $800 billion over ten years, and they say assumes a much-too-rosy 3 percent growth in the economy.
"At a time when our middle class is hurting, the federal government is proposing reckless budget cuts that will devastate the people of New York," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said. "This heartless proposal would slash Medicaid and disability insurance, cripple our health care system, and gut programs that help New Yorkers warm their homes, feed their children, and find quality affordable housing."
Cuomo added that the "radical conservative agenda" in Washington continues to put "corporations ahead of people and billionaires before vulnerable New Yorkers."
"The Trump administration introduced today constitutes a massive transfer of wealth to working families, the elderly, the sick, and the poor to the top one percent," Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio also slammed Trump's budget Tuesday and likewise said it was designed to benefit the rich.
"I'll say to you what I said at the time of the first budget proposal and what I said when the initial tax proposal was put out. It's the same pattern – a plan written by billionaires and millionaires, for billionaires and millionaires," de Blasio said. "That's what this is."
De Blasio had a dire warning for what could happen to children who could lose health coverage.
"Our projection for New York City is that 125,000 kids in New York City would either lose their health insurance or have their coverage cut back severely," the mayor said. "Think about that for a moment – 125,000 children who will be less healthy because of Trump's budget. It is not an overstatement to say that some children will die because of this."
The mayor said he expected the budget plan to be subjected to a bipartisan rebuke.
"I'm a Democrat, but I can guarantee you a lot of Republicans are going to be disgusted by a cut to the children's health insurance program and will fight against it too," he said.
In the meantime, National Intelligence Director Dan Coats refused to answer Senate questions about whether President Trump pressured him to deny claims the Trump campaign may have conspired with Russian officials.
"It's not appropriate for me to comment on any of that," Coats said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, CBS News has confirmed a report that President Trump urged Coats and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers to "publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion." Both men refused.
"The White House seems to have little respect for the principles or rule of law," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.
In the House of Representatives, former Obama CIA Director John Brennan testified that he had intelligence that revealed contacts between Russian officials and members of Trump's campaign.
"But I don't know," Brennan said. "I don't have sufficient information to make a determination whether or not such cooperation or complicity or collusion was taking place but I know there was a basis to have individuals pull those threads."
Former FBI Director Robert Mueller is now leading the agency's investigation as the hearing with recently ousted FBI Director James Comey is delayed.
Comey has asked to speak with Mueller first before testifying.
