Reuters and other news outlets reported earlier this week that the administration plans to propose to Congress cuts in the budgets for the U.S. State Department and Agency for International Development by about one third, Fox News said on Saturday, March 4.
"We are going to propose to reduce foreign aid and we are going to propose to spend that money here," White House Office of Management Budget director Mick Mulvaney told Fox News on Saturday, adding the proposed cuts would include "fairly dramatic reductions in foreign aid."
Read alsoRussia raises funeral expenses for military in 2017Mulvaney said the cuts in foreign aid would help the administration fund a proposed $54 billion expansion of the U.S. military budget.
"The overriding message is fairly straightforward: less money spent overseas means more money spent here," said Mulvaney, a former South Carolina Representative.
Read alsoRussia says "new tragedies" possible if U.S. supplies lethal aid to UkraineThe United States spends just over $50 billion annually on the State Department and USAID, compared with $600 billion or more each year on the Pentagon.
