President Trump on Thursday will unveil a budget plan that calls for a sharp increase in military spending and stark cuts across much of the rest of the government including the elimination of dozens of long-standing federal programs that assist the poor, fund scientific research and aid America’s allies abroad. 
 
 Trump’s first budget proposal, which he named “America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again,” would increase defense spending by $54 billion and then offset that by stripping money from more than 18 other agencies. Some would be hit particularly hard, with reductions of more than 20 percent at the Agriculture, Labor and State departments and of more than 30 percent at the Environmental Protection Agency. 
 
 It would also propose eliminating future federal support for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Within EPA alone, 50 programs and 3,200 positions would be eliminated. 
 
 The cuts could represent the widest swath of reductions in federal programs since the drawdown after World War II, probably leading to a sizable cutback in the federal non-military workforce, something White House officials said was one of their goals. 
 
 “You can’t drain the swamp and leave all the people in it,” White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told reporters. 
 
 Many of Trump’s budget proposals are likely to run into stiff resistance from lawmakers on Capitol Hill, even from Republicans, whose support is crucial because they must vote to authorize government appropriations. Republicans have objected, for example, to the large cuts in foreign aid and diplomacy that Trump has foreshadowed, and his budget whacks foreign aid programs run by the Education, State and Treasury departments, among others. 
 
 “The administration’s budget isn’t going to be the budget,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). “We do the budget here. The administration makes recommendations, but Congress does budgets.” 
 
 Trump’s budget would not take effect until the new fiscal year on Oct. 1, but the president must still reach a separate agreement with Congress by the end of April, when a temporary funding bill expires. If they can’t reach an agreement, and if Trump’s new budget plan widens fault lines, then the chances would increase for a partial government shutdown starting on April 29. 
 
 The president and Congress must also raise the debt ceiling, which has become a politically fraught ritual. Although the ceiling was extended until March 15, budget experts say the government should be able to continue borrowing money by suspending or stretching out payments through August or September. 
 
 White House budget proposals are often changed by lawmakers, but they serve as a marker for how the president plans to govern and as an opening bid on budget talks. Mulvaney said the White House was open to negotiation, but he was unapologetic about the size and scope of the reductions. 
 
 “This budget represents a president who is beholden to nobody but the voters,” Mulvaney said. “He is following through on his promises. We did not consult with special interests on how to write this budget. We did not consult with lobbyists on how to write this budget. The president’s team wrote this budget and that’s what you’ll see in the numbers.” 
 
 The 53-page budget plan offers the clearest snapshot yet of Trump’s priorities. Yet it is also far shorter and vaguer than White House budget plans normally are. One of the missing details is precisely where and how many jobs would be eliminated across the federal government. 
 
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 [Read President Trump’s first budget proposal] 
 
 Parts of the budget proposal also appear to contradict Trump’s agenda. Trump has said he wants to eliminate all disease, but the budget chops funding for the National Institutes of Health by $5.8 billion, or close to 20 percent. He has said he wants to create a $1 trillion infrastructure program, but the proposal would eliminate a Transportation Department program that funds nearly $500 million in road projects. It does not include new funding amounts or a tax mechanism for Trump’s infrastructure program, postponing those decisions. 
 
 And the Trump administration proposed to eliminate a number of other programs, particularly those that serve low-income Americans and minorities, because it questioned their effectiveness. This included the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which disburses more than $3 billion annually to help heat homes in the winter. It also proposed abolishing the Community Development Block Grant program, which provides roughly $3 billion for targeted projects related to affordable housing, community development and homelessness programs, among other things. 
 
 The budget was stuffed with other cuts and reductions. It calls for privatizing the Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic control function, cutting all funding for long-distance Amtrak train services and eliminating EPA funding for the restoration of Chesapeake Bay. Job training programs would also be cut, pushing more responsibility for this onto the states and employers. 
 
 Many Republicans have criticized these programs in the past as wasteful and ineffective, but supporters have said the programs are vital for communities in need. 
 
 The proposed budget extensively targets Obama programs and investments focused on climate change, seeking to eliminate payments to the United Nations’ Green Climate Fund — one key component of the U.S. commitment to the Paris climate agreement — and to slash research funding for climate, ocean and earth science programs at agencies such as NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. At the same time, clean-energy research, heavily privileged by the Obama administration, would suffer greatly under the budget with the elimination of the ­ARPA-E program (Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy) at the Energy Department and an unspecified cut to the agency’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. 
 
 “I think one of the reasons they’re proposing them [big spending cuts] is that they know they won’t ever get through Congress,” said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.). “They know they’d be a disaster for their own party if they did. It makes for a great talking point. It actually fits on a tweet.” 
 
 There were several areas in which Trump proposed increasing spending. He proposed, for example, $168 million for charter school programs and $250 million for a new private-school choice program, which would probably provide tuition assistance for families who opt to send their children to private schools. 
 
 The biggest increase in spending would be directed at the Pentagon, but the budget plan does not make clear where the new $54 billion would go. The budget plan would boost funding for the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force. It would, among other things, acquire new F-35 Joint Strike Fighters and rebuild what it says are depleted munitions inventories. But it stops short of saying how these new funds would support new tactics to combat the Islamic State. 
 
 The bump in defense spending was a marked contrast to the cuts Trump proposed in diplomatic and international programs. He proposed cutting combined spending for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development by $10.1 billion, or nearly 29 percent. It would cut an unspecified amount of funding from U.N. peacekeeping efforts. It would also cut spending for Treasury International Programs, foreign assistance programs that have been supported by Republican and Democratic administrations, by $803 million, or 35 percent. 
 
 Trump directed funding to meet several of his campaign pledges as well. 
 
 He proposed new money to hire border security agents and immigration judges. 
 
 And he requested $1.7 billion in new funding this year and an additional $2.6 billion in new funding in 2018 to begin construction of a wall along the border with Mexico. Trump proposed creating this wall during his campaign and had said Mexico would pay for it. A number of congressional Republicans appear to be cooling on the idea. 
 
 The federal government is expected to spend more than $4 trillion in the fiscal year that begins in October, and Trump’s budget proposal would deal with slightly more than 25 percent of this funding. The government is expected to spend $487 billion more than it brings in through revenue during the next fiscal year, and to avoid widening the deficit, Trump proposed steep cuts across the budget to compensate for the new defense spending. 
 
 Trump will propose a more comprehensive budget plan in May, which could include changes to programs such as Medicaid and also offer economic forecasts. But that proposal will come after the deadline for reaching an agreement to avoid a partial shutdown. So Thursday’s budget proposal from Trump will factor squarely into those negotiations. 
 
 Read more: 
 
 Proposed budget for Commerce would cut funds for NOAA 
 
 Trump would increase Energy Department funds to manage nuclear stockpile 
 
 Labor Dept. cuts target job training programs for seniors, disadvantaged youths 
 
 Kelsey Snell and Philip Rucker contributed to this report. ||||| (Jenny Starrs,Danielle Kunitz/The Washington Post) 
 
 Once again, Big Bird is on the chopping block, threatened by the loss of federal funds that sustain public broadcasting stations. But the big yellow fella has been there before, and survived each time. 
 
 Is there any reason to think the outcome will be different this time around? 
 
 People in public broadcasting expect President Trump to propose “zeroing out” the government’s subsidy of noncommercial radio and TV stations when he presents his first federal budget to Congress this week. Such a proposal would eliminate the $445 million that Congress now sends to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the private entity that passes the money to nearly 1,500 stations affiliated with NPR, PBS and other public-media sources. 
 
 The loss of federal money would be nearly catastrophic, particularly for small stations in remote communities, public broadcasters say. Those stations rely on federal funds for as much as half or more of their annual budgets. “A number of those stations would go off the air,” said Paula Kerger, PBS’s president. “It’s an existential question for many of them.” 
 
 Stations that survive the cut would have to raise even more money through pledge drives and sponsorships to make up for the loss of dollars from Washington, added Roger LaMay, the chairman of NPR’s board and general manager of WXPN-FM in Philadelphia. “It would weaken the entire public radio system,” he said. 
 
 Then again, public broadcasters have been through the budget wars many times before and have always received the money that helps them broadcast “Sesame Street” and “All Things Considered.” In fact, no matter the rhetoric or momentary crisis, CPB has often ended up with a slight increase in its federal funding each year. 
 
 Presidents as far back as Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan have discussed or proposed zero funding, only to have congressional allies come through to save the day. President George W. Bush proposed zero funding in all eight years of his administration; CPB’s appropriation actually grew 14 percent during the Bush years. 
 
 First lady Laura Bush joins Big Bird and Elmo in a 2002 appearance promoting reading on “Sesame Street.” (DON EMMERT/AFP via Getty Images) 
 
 Which makes Big Bird more like Dracula; he keeps coming back from the dead. 
 
 The CPB’s share of the $4 trillion federal budget is microscopic — typically around 0.01 percent. But it has long been a cultural piñata and symbol of government excess for conservatives, who’ve been critical of the alleged liberal bias of public radio and TV programming. 
 
 Among public broadcasting’s many budget scrapes was one in 2005 when Bush’s education secretary, Margaret Spellings, complained that an episode of an animated children’s program, “Postcards From Buster,” had featured two families headed by lesbian parents. She demanded the return of federal funds that had subsidized the program; PBS decided to stop distributing the episode, heading off the impasse. 
 
 Public broadcasters expect more goose eggs in Trump’s first budget proposal, but they’re optimistic that history will repeat itself when the budget process is completed. 
 
 “Until we hear from the president, I’m hoping for the best,” said Patrick Butler, the president of America’s Public Television Stations (APTS), which represents most of the 171 public TV licensees in the country. “But we’re prepared to defend ourselves.” 
 
 Public broadcasting enjoys wide political support, primarily because public radio and TV stations are spread throughout big communities and small ones in both red and blue states. Over the years, people in public media have argued that many of these communities would lose irreplaceable educational and local news programs without federal support. 
 
 They have also mobilized the public at times, such as a 2011 lobbying campaign that brought Big Bird to the halls of Congress (that bit of theater may have been blunted by a 2015 deal between “Sesame Street’s” parent company, Sesame Workshop, and HBO, in which Sesame produces first-run episodes for the pay-TV network; PBS gets the reruns). 
 
 
 
 A supporter of President Obama holds up a message supporting Big Bird in 2012 after Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said he would cut funding to public television. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images) 
 
 The pro-subsidy forces typically have strong Democratic support, but they’re also counting on some powerful Republican allies. They include Senate appropriations committee chairman Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), whose father was chairman of the Mississippi Public Broadcasting Commission in the 1960s, and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who chairs the Senate subcommittee that oversees CPB funding. 
 
 The House appropriations committee and subcommittee chairmen, Reps. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) and Tom Cole (R-Okla.), have also previously supported CPB’s funding. 
 
 On the other hand, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) proposed eliminating the funding when he was chairman of the House Budget Committee. 
 
 “We only need a few Republicans to win the day on either side of the Capitol, and we have more than a few of those,” said Butler. “I hope President Trump will review the record . . . and realize our funding is a tremendous bargain for the American people. I feel optimistic, but I don’t want to get ahead of things.” ||||| President Donald Trump’s first budget proposal this week will be like many of his policy ideas so far — big on showmanship and playing to his base, short on details. 
 
 The blueprint is expected to call for taking an ax to programs and agencies that Republicans love to hate like EPA, Energy, Interior, State, HUD and Commerce; foreign aid; the federal workforce; and Education and Labor training programs, while boosting defense spending by roughly $54 billion — and that covers only so-called discretionary spending, which accounts for just a third of the federal government’s budget. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 Agencies that are expected to see boosts include the FBI and Homeland Security, including Customs and Border Protection, since they will be crucial to carrying out the administration’s travel ban policy and the building of the so-far hypothetical wall with Mexico. 
 
 Other agencies will see anywhere from a 15- to 20-percent cut, said one policy expert on the transition team — with the EPA seeing a proposed cut north of 25 percent. “I am looking to see who is being protected,” said one source from Trump’s presidential transition team who worked on policy issues. “Other than that, I don’t expect to learn much more from the budget." 
 
 Yet none of this may matter to Trump’s base, who elected him based on his promise to upend Washington and dismantle the federal government. Voters rarely want to sweat all of the details; they want action. And Trump’s budget will offer that reward by pinpointing the winners and losers within the federal bureaucracy in broad strokes, according to transition sources. 
 
 Most agency cuts are expected to lack specificity, transition sources said; they will require each Cabinet secretary to find savings by eliminating programs, cutting the workforce or both. 
 
 The exception may be swaths of the EPA, Commerce, State and Energy departments, where the budget is expected to call for the wholesale elimination of programs involving solar energy, biofuels or anything that looks like the government propping up one sector over another, an idea that’s anathema to conservatives. 
 
 “Foreign aid is a complete waste of money,” said Stephen Moore, a senior economist at the Heritage Foundation who worked on the budget draft during Trump’s presidential campaign. Moore stressed that he had not seen the final blueprint. That document is being so closely held that even political appointees at various agencies have not seen it. 
 
 The White House plans to release a fuller version of its budget sometime in May. 
 
 “The big question is whether the political system can absorb these cutbacks,” Moore added. “If this was a business, they could cut by 10 to 15 percent. Some of the agencies should be cut 100 percent. The argument that President Trump needs to make is that businesses downsize. They suck in their gut. The government has not done that.” 
 
 Yet long-time Republican budget leaders and staffers remain skeptical of Trump’s first stab at budget politics because it will lack so many key details. The “skinny budget,” as the administration calls this proposal, will not tackle mandatory spending like Medicare or Social Security — entitlement programs that are the main drivers of cost for the government over the next decade and which Republicans have long wanted to overhaul. 
 
 Nor is the plan expected to include tax proposals, as budgets typically do. It also promises to boost defense spending by billions of dollars, without taking into account the budget caps still in place from the sequester — to override those to hit the spending level Trump wants, the Senate would need 60 votes to change the law, votes that are not assured. 
 
 “That makes the budget anorexic, not skinny,” says the former Republican director of the Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Holtz-Eakin. “It will be politics as usual. Trump’s base will like it. Other Republicans won’t. He’ll divide the GOP the same way he always does.” 
 
 For policy-making, the implications will be even starker. This lack of detailed accounting in Trump’s proposal will either force Congress to make many of the hard decisions in its appropriations bills, or simply delay congressional action entirely as leadership awaits further direction from the White House — a scenario that played out with the botched roll-out of the House Republican health care bill. 
 
 “The budget is not going to be that revealing,” said G. William Hoagland, the former Republican staff director of the Senate Budget Committee. “We’ll have to wait until the full budget comes at end of April and in May. What the appropriators need are the account-level details.” 
 
 The possibility of wholesale elimination of departments, meanwhile, terrifies government workers, as well as the unions that represent them. 
 
 “If budgets cut require reductions in force, then federal workers will be concerned about their job and taking care of their family, but they’re also concerned about being able to care for everyone that their jobs are meant to support,” said Tim Kauffman of American Federation of Government Employees that represents roughly 700,000 workers across federal agencies. 
 
 For the past few weeks, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget has been negotiating with agency heads over proposed budget cuts behind-closed-doors. At the State Department, for instance, Secretary Rex Tillerson managed to negotiate cuts less severe cuts than the 37 percent outlined in earlier documents, POLITICO reported earlier this week. 
 
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 One State Department worker, who spoke anonymously for fear of being fired, said workers had been urged not to mention climate change in conversations with OMB officials as the department sought to save programs. 
 
 Similarly, State workers tried to rebrand any foreign aid and education programs as ways to boost American or female entrepreneurship, playing into the president’s desire to promote business growth, the State employee added. 
 
 This process of negotiations has been happening across agencies for the past few weeks, as the president assembles his first budget. 
 
 It’s been a scramble this year, as is often the case in the first year of an administration, said Sandy Davis, former associate director for legislative affairs at the Congressional Budget Office. Typically, the White House sends agencies the first draft of its budget proposal around Thanksgiving, allowing the agencies to go back and forth for weeks before a blueprint is released in the winter. “It’s truncated this year, which is typical for a new administration,” Davis said. 
 
 New OMB Director Mick Mulvaney was not even confirmed until mid-February. Prior to that, much of the budget policy was being run by a former Heritage Foundation and Senate Budget Committee staffer, Paul Winfree, who now works as the White House’s Director of Budget Policy. 
 
 Winfree also wrote Heritage’s budget blueprint in 2016, which has informed much of the administration’s thinking on its budget proposal — although Trump departed from the plan by declining to broach the dismantling of entitlements, except for Medicaid which comes in for big cuts in the House Republican health care bill. 
 
 Andrew Restuccia, Shane Goldmacher, Marianne Levine, Caitlin Emma and Darius Dixon contributed to this story. 
 
 Authors: ||||| U.S. President Donald Trump's overview of the budget priorities for Fiscal Year 2018 are displayed at the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) on its release by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in Washington, U.S. March 16, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts 
 
 U.S. President Donald Trump's overview of the budget priorities for Fiscal Year 2018 are displayed at the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) on its release by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in Washington, U.S. March 16, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts 
 
 U.S. President Donald Trump's overview of the budget priorities for Fiscal Year 2018 are displayed at the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) on its release by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in Washington, U.S. March 16, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts 
 
 U.S. President Donald Trump's overview of the budget priorities for Fiscal Year 2018 are displayed at the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) on its release by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in Washington, U.S. March 16, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts 
 
 U.S. President Donald Trump's overview of the budget priorities for Fiscal Year 2018 are displayed at the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) on its release by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in Washington, U.S. March 16, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts 
 
 WASHINGTON President Donald Trump will ask the U.S. Congress for dramatic cuts to many federal programs as he seeks to bulk up defence spending, start building a wall on the border with Mexico and spend more money deporting illegal immigrants. 
 
 In a federal budget proposal with many losers, the Environmental Protection Agency and State Department stand out as targets for the biggest spending reductions. Funding would disappear altogether for 19 independent bodies that count on federal money for public broadcasting, the arts and regional issues from Alaska to Appalachia. 
 
 Trump's budget outline is a bare-bones plan covering just "discretionary" spending for the 2018 fiscal year starting on Oct. 1. It is the first volley in what is expected to be an intense battle over spending in coming months in Congress, which holds the federal purse strings and seldom approves presidents' budget plans. 
 
 READ MORE: In Trump era, some Mexican migrants head north - to Canada 
 
 Congress, controlled by Trump's fellow Republicans, may reject some or many of his proposed cuts. Some of the proposed changes, which Democrats will broadly oppose, have been targeted for decades by conservative Republicans. 
 
 Moderate Republicans have already expressed unease with potential cuts to popular domestic programs such as home-heating subsidies, clean-water projects and job training. 
 
 Trump is willing to discuss priorities, said White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, a former South Carolina congressman who made a name for himself as a spending hawk before Trump plucked him for his Cabinet. 
 
 READ MORE: Tillerson calls for "new approach" to North Korea, no details 
 
 "The president wants to spend more money on defence, more money securing the border, more money enforcing the laws, and more money on school choice, without adding to the deficit," Mulvaney told a small group of reporters during a preview on Wednesday. 
 
 "If they have a different way to accomplish that, we are more than interested in talking to them," Mulvaney said. 
 
 Trump wants to spend $54 billion more on defence, put a down payment on his border wall, and breathe life into a few other campaign promises. His initial budget outline does not incorporate his promise to pour $1 trillion into roads, bridges, airports and other infrastructure projects. The White House has said the infrastructure plan is still to come. 
 
 The defence increases are matched by cuts to other programs so as to not increase the $488 billion federal deficit. Mulvaney acknowledged the proposal would likely result in significant cuts to the federal workforce. 
 
 "You can’t drain the swamp and leave all the people in it," Mulvaney said. 
 
 'AMERICA FIRST' 
 
 White House officials looked at Trump's campaign speeches and "America First" pledges as they crunched the numbers, Mulvaney said. 
 
 "We turned those policies into numbers," he said, explaining how the document mirrored pledges to spend more on the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal, veterans' health care, the FBI, and Justice Department efforts to fight drug dealers and violent crime. 
 
 The Department of Homeland Security would get a 6.8 percent increase, with more money for extra staff needed to catch, detain and deport illegal immigrants. 
 
 Trump wants Congress to shell out $1.5 billion for the border wall with Mexico in the current fiscal year - enough for pilot projects to determine the best way to build it - and a further $2.6 billion in fiscal 2018, Mulvaney said. 
 
 The estimate of the full cost of the wall will be included in the full budget, expected in mid-May, which will project spending and revenues over 10 years. 
 
 Trump has vowed Mexico will pay for the border wall, which the Mexican government has flatly said it will not do. The White House has said recently that funding would be kick-started in the United States. 
 
 The voluminous budget document will include economic forecasts and Trump's views on "mandatory entitlements" - big-ticket programs like Social Security and Medicare, which Trump vowed to protect on the campaign trail. 
 
 BIGGEST LOSERS 
 
 Trump asked Congress to slash the EPA by $2.6 billion or more than 31 percent, and the State Department by more than 28 percent or $10.9 billion. 
 
 Mulvaney said the "core functions" of those agencies would be preserved. Hit hard would be foreign aid, grants to multilateral development agencies like the World Bank and climate change programs at the United Nations. 
 
 Trump wants to get rid of more than 50 EPA programs, end funding for former Democratic President Barack Obama's signature Clean Power Plan aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions, and cut renewable energy research programs at the Energy Department. 
 
 Regional programs to clean up the Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay would be sent to the chopping block. 
 
 Community development grants at the Housing Department - around since 1974 - were cut in Trump's budget, along with more than 20 Education Department programs, including some funding programme for before- and after- school programs. 
 
 Anti-poverty grants and a programme that helps poor people pay their energy bills would be slashed, as well as a Labour Department programme that helps low-income seniors find work. 
 
 Trump's rural base did not escape cuts. The White House proposed a 21 percent reduction to the Agriculture Department, cutting loans and grants for wastewater, reducing staff in county offices and ending a popular programme that helps U.S. farmers donate crops for overseas food aid. 
 
 For graphic on winners and losers in Trump's budget click tmsnrt.rs/2m35X3b 
 
 (Additional reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Peter Cooney) ||||| President Donald Trump's first proposed budget, released by the Office of Management and Budget, is photographed in Washington, Wednesday, March 15, 2017. Military spending would get the biggest boost... (Associated Press) 
 
 President Donald Trump's first proposed budget, released by the Office of Management and Budget, is photographed in Washington, Wednesday, March 15, 2017. Military spending would get the biggest boost in President Donald Trump’s proposed budget. Environmental programs, medical research, Amtrak and an... (Associated Press) 
 
 President Donald Trump's first proposed budget, released by the Office of Management and Budget, is photographed in Washington, Wednesday, March 15, 2017. Military spending would get the biggest boost in President Donald Trump’s proposed budget. Environmental programs, medical research, Amtrak and an... (Associated Press) President Donald Trump's first proposed budget, released by the Office of Management and Budget, is photographed in Washington, Wednesday, March 15, 2017. Military spending would get the biggest boost... (Associated Press) 
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) — Military spending would get the biggest boost in President Donald Trump's proposed budget. Environmental programs, medical research, Amtrak and an array of international and cultural programs — from Africa to Appalachia — would take big hits, among the many parts of the government he'd put on a crash diet. 
 
 The budget proposal out Thursday is a White House wish list; it'll be up to Congress to decide where money goes. If Trump gets his way, there will be more losers than winners among government departments and programs. 
 
 Some programs would tread water: WIC grants — money to states for health care and nutrition for low-income women, infants and children — are one example. Money for states grants for water infrastructure projects would be held level as well. 
 
 Some others would lose everything: Trump proposes to eliminate money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the national endowments for arts and humanities and more than a dozen other independent agencies financed by the government. 
 
 A sampling: 
 
 WINNERS 
 
 —The Pentagon. Trump proposes a 10 percent increase in the massive defense budget, adding $52 billion in military spending in one year top expand personnel, equipment and capability. Another $2 billion would go to nuclear weapons. 
 
 —Veterans Affairs. Up 5.9 percent. That's an additional $4.4 billion, driven by ever-growing health care costs. 
 
 —Homeland Security. Up 6.8 percent. That's $2.8 billion more. Most of the increase, $2.6 billion, would be to help kick-start Trump's promised border wall. The president has repeatedly said Mexico would pay for the wall; Mexican officials are adamant that they won't. Trump also wants an extra $1.5 billion for more immigration jails and deportations, and $314 million to hire 1,500 immigration enforcement and border patrol agents. 
 
 —The National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the maintenance and safety of the nuclear arsenal and its research labs. The agency would grow by 11.3 percent, or $1.4 billion, so that it takes up more than half the Energy Department's budget, which would shrink overall. 
 
 —Opioid prevention and treatment: a proposed $500 million increase in the Health and Human Services Department to counter the epidemic and more money for the Justice Department to combat the problem. 
 
 —School choice: $1.4 billion more to expand school choice programs, bringing spending in that area to $20 billion, even as the Education Department's overall budget would be cut by $9 billion, or 13 percent. 
 
 LOSERS: 
 
 —EPA, facing a 31.4 percent cut, or $2.6 billion. The plan would cut 3,200 jobs at the agency, eliminate a new plan for tighter regulations on power plants, and "zero out" programs to clean up the Great Lakes and the Chesapeake Bay. 
 
 —Health and Human Services, facing the largest cut in dollar terms: $12.6 billion, or 16.2 percent. The plan would cut $5.8 billion from the nearly $32 billion National Institutes of Health, the nation's premier medical research agency, bringing its total to $25.9 billion. It's not clear what research on diseases or disorders would lose the most money, although the budget plan specifically calls for elimination of a division that focuses on global health. Already, the NIH's budget hasn't kept pace with inflation over the last decade, making it dramatically harder for scientists around the country to win money for research projects into potential new treatments or better understanding of disease. 
 
 —State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development. Down 28 percent, or $10 billion. Foreign aid would be reduced, as would money to the U.N. and to multilateral development banks including the World Bank. Some foreign military grants would be shifted to loans. 
 
 —Labor Department. A more than 20 percent cut, or $2.5 billion. To be eliminated: a $434 million program that has helped more than 1 million people 55 and older find jobs, according to the department. The blueprint says the Senior Community Service Employment Program is inefficient and unproven. 
 
 —Agriculture Department. A nearly 21 percent cut, or $4.7 billion, achieved in part by cutting land acquisition in the National Forest System, rural water infrastructure and statistical capabilities at the department. Trump also proposes reduced staff in county USDA offices, an idea that fell flat in Congress when President Barack Obama proposed a similar reduction. 
 
 —Transportation Department. Trump proposes a cut of nearly 13 percent, or $2.4 billion. Amtrak, local transit agencies, and rural communities that depend on federal subsidies to obtain scheduled airline service would take the brunt. Trump would eliminate subsidies for Amtrak long-distance train routes, which would most likely mean the end of those routes since they are generally not profitable. Money for the Federal Transit Administration grant program for new light rail and subway construction would be eliminated except for multi-year projects the government has already committed to help fund. 
 
 —Internal Revenue Service: After years of cuts, the IRS budget would be cut again — by $239 million from this year's spending levels. The IRS budget is down about $1 billion from its height in 2010. Since then, the agency has lost more than 17,000 employees. As a result, the chances of getting audited have rarely been so low. 
 
 —Commerce Department. A 16 percent or $1.5 billion cut. The plan would eliminate more than $250 million in National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grants, including a program that helps coastal communities adapt to climate change, deal with invasive species and maintain healthy water and fisheries. Also on the chopping block: the Economic Development Administration, which provides federal dollars to foster job creation and attract private investment; and the Minority Business Development Agency, which is dedicated to helping minority-owned business get off the ground and grow. The Trump administration says the two agencies duplicate work done elsewhere. 
 
 —School programs: The plan would eliminate a $1.2 billion initiative that supports before- and after-school programs as well as summer programs. 
 
 —Independent agencies supported by tax dollars. If Trump prevails, a hefty contingent of entities would lose all federal money and be shut. Among them, the Public Broadcasting Corporation, the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Chemical Safety Board, the United States Institute of Peace, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Corporation for National Community Service and the African Development Foundation. That foundation was established by Congress and provides seed money and other support to enterprises in some 20 countries on that continent. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor, Lauran Neergaard, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Stephen Ohlemacher, Joan Lowy, Laurie Kellman, Mary Clare Jalonick, Kevin Freking, Alicia A. Caldwell and Evan Berland contributed to this report. ||||| In recent years, far smaller proposed cuts to the popular grant program, which includes flexible funding for a variety of housing and community projects, created a bipartisan uproar that nearly scuttled the entire budget-making process. 
 
 The E.P.A. is, arguably, the hardest-hit agency under Mr. Trump’s budget proposal: He wants to cut spending by nearly a third — $2.6 billion from its current level of $8.2 billion, according to a person who had been briefed on the proposal but was not authorized to speak publicly about it. 
 
 That would take the budget down to about $5.7 billion, its lowest level in 40 years, adjusted for inflation. In an initial draft, the White House had proposed cutting about $2 billion from the agency’s budget, taking it down to just over $6 billion, according to an aide familiar with the plan. 
 
 The E.P.A. administrator, Scott Pruitt, who has himself spoken out against some of the core missions of the agency he leads, went to the White House to request a smaller cut after the White House budget office first presented him its preferred spending level. He pressed for about $7 billion, according to the person. Instead, the White House slashed his budget down even further, to about $5.7 billion. 
 
 Mr. Trump’s proposed cuts to the E.P.A. are a magnitude greater even than those envisioned by congressional Republicans, many of whom forcefully oppose the agency’s regulatory agenda. Last year, the House spending subcommittee that controls the E.P.A.’s budget proposed funding the agency at $8 billion, cutting just $291 million from President Barack Obama’s request. 
 
 Representative Ken Calvert, the California Republican who is the chairman of that panel, said in an interview this year that he did not anticipate cutting the E.P.A.’s popular state grant programs, which fund projects like restoring the Great Lakes and cleaning and redeveloping formerly contaminated industrial sites. 
 
 The proposed State Department cuts, which leaked this month, have already created a backlash among some Capitol Hill Republicans. 
 
 Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, has already said Senate Republicans will not agree to deep cuts to the $50 billion budget for the State Department and United States Agency for International Development initially proposed by the Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget. ||||| During his remarks, Trump repeated a claim that the U.S. has spent $6 trillion on wars in the Middle East in the last sixteen years. That figure appears to combine a high estimate of money spent (about $4.79 trillion, including money set aside for 2017) and projected future spending, with a difference of $1 trillion or more, according to PolitiFact . 
 
 Donald Trump, speaking to the nation's governors at the White House on Feb. 27, said he plans to increase defense spending by finding savings and efficiencies in the government. “We are going to do more with less,” Trump said. 
 
 President Donald Trump unveiled a $1.15 trillion budget on Thursday, a far-reaching overhaul of federal government spending that cuts the federal workforce and slashes many domestic programs to finance a significant increase in the military and make a down payment on a U.S.-Mexico border wall. 
 
 Trump's proposal seeks to upend Washington with cuts to long-promised campaign targets like foreign aid and the Environmental Protection Agency as well as strong congressional favorites such as medical research, help for homeless veterans and community development grants. 
 
 "A budget that puts America first must make the safety of our people its number one priority — because without safety, there can be no prosperity," Trump said in a message accompanying his proposed budget that was titled "America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again." 
 
 The cuts could have devastating effects in the D.C. area, where the federal government is the largest employer. 
 
 Environmentalists and Environmental Protection Agency employees protested against the proposed cuts Wednesday outside the agency's Washington headquarters. Workers are concerned about their jobs and their ability to serve the country, said the president of the largest union representing EPA employees, AFGE Local 331. 
 
 "People are definitely worried. They're definitely worried about their jobs, and they're worried about the mission of the agency. We do need clean air and water," Nathaniel James said. 
 
 The $54 billion boost for the military is the largest since President Ronald Reagan's Pentagon buildup in the 1980s, promising immediate money for troop readiness, the fight against Islamic State militants and procurement of new ships, fighter jets and other weapons. The 10 percent Pentagon boost is financed by $54 billion in cuts to foreign aid and domestic agencies that had been protected by former President Barack Obama. 
 
 The budget goes after the frequent targets of the party's staunchest conservatives, eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts, legal aid for the poor, low-income heating assistance and the AmeriCorps national service program established by former President Bill Clinton. 
 
 Spicer Stands By Trump's Wiretapping Claim 
 
 White House press secretary Sean Spicer said President Donald Trump stands by his claim of being under surveillance by the Obama administration, despite a joint statement from the top two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Spicer alleged the House and Senate were not fully briefed, despite statements to the contrary. (Published Thursday, March 16, 2017) 
 
 Such programs were the focus of lengthy battles dating to the GOP takeover of Congress in 1995 and have survived prior attempts to eliminate them. Lawmakers will have the final say on Trump's proposal in the arduous budget process, and many of the cuts will be deemed dead on arrival. Mulvaney acknowledged to reporters that passing the cuts could be an uphill struggle and said the administration would negotiate over replacement cuts. 
 
 Mulvaney also went after GOP favorites, including aid to rural schools and health research, while eliminating subsidies for rural air service and the federal flood insurance program that's a linchpin for the real estate market, especially in coastal southern states and the Northeast. 
 
 Trump's GOP allies Capitol Hill gave it only grudging praise, if any. "Congress has the power of the purse," reminded House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J. "I look forward to reviewing this," said House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. 
 
 "This is not a take-it-or-leave-it budget," Mulvaney admitted. 
 
 Key Takeaways From Trump's 'America First' Budget Proposal 
 
 President Donald Trump released his first budget proposal on Thursday. Here are some of the biggest budget cuts and increases that he’d wants made in the federal government. (Published Thursday, March 16, 2017) 
 
 Law enforcement agencies like the FBI would be spared, while the border wall would receive an immediate $1.4 billion infusion in the ongoing fiscal year, with another $2.6 billion planned for the 2018 budget year starting Oct. 1. 
 
 Trump repeatedly claimed during the campaign that Mexico would pay for the wall when, in fact, U.S. taxpayers will foot the bill. 
 
 Twelve of the government's 15 Cabinet agencies would absorb cuts under the president's proposal. The biggest losers are Agriculture, Labor, State, and the Cabinet-level EPA. The Defense Department, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Veterans Affairs are the winners. 
 
 More than 3,000 EPA workers would lose their jobs and programs such as Obama's Clean Power Plan, which would tighten regulations on emissions from power plants seen as contributing to global warming, would be eliminated. Popular EPA grants for state and local drinking and wastewater projects would be preserved, however, even as research into climate change would be eliminated. 
 
 'Lock Her Up': Crowd Chants as Trump Rips Clinton 
 
 Months after his victory over Hillary Clinton, President Donald Trump prompted chants of "Lock Her Up" from the crowd during a joke made at her expense at a Wednesday night Nashville, Tennessee, appearance. (Published Thursday, March 16, 2017) 
 
 Trump's proposal covers only roughly one-fourth of the approximately $4 trillion federal budget, the discretionary portion that Congress passes each year. It doesn't address taxes, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, or make predictions about deficits and the economy. Those big-picture details are due in mid-May, and are sure to show large — probably permanent — budget deficits. Trump has vowed not to cut Social Security and Medicare and is dead set against raising taxes. 
 
 "The president's going to keep his promises" to leave Social Security and Medicare alone, Mulvaney said. 
 
 But the budget increases user fees, boosting the airline ticket tax by $1 per one-way trip. 
 
 The so-called "skinny budget" is indeed skimpy, glossing over cuts to many sensitive programs such as community health centers, national parks, offering only a vague, two-page summary of most agencies, including the Pentagon, where allocating its additional billions is still a work in progress. 
 
 Trump Lashes Out at Report of Leaked Tax Returns 
 
 President Donald Trump lashed out on Twitter Wednesday morning after Rachel Maddow and David Cay Johnston released leaked copies of Trump's 2005 tax returns. The returns revealed Trump paid $38 million on a $152 million income. (Published Wednesday, March 15, 2017) 
 
 Trump's proposal is sure to land with a thud on Capitol Hill, and not just with opposition Democrats outraged over cuts to pet programs such as renewable energy, climate change research and rehabilitation of housing projects. 
 
 Republicans like Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio are irate over planned elimination of a program to restore the Great Lakes. Top Republicans like Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker of Tennessee are opposed to drastic cuts to foreign aid. And even GOP defense hawks like Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry of Texas aren't satisfied with the $54 billion increase for the military. 
 
 Before the two sides go to war over Trump's 2018 plan, they need to clean up more than $1.1 trillion in unfinished agency budgets for the current year. A temporary catchall spending bill expires April 28; negotiations have barely started and could get hung up over Trump's request for the wall and additional border patrol and immigration enforcement agents, just for starters. 
 
 Some of the most politically sensitive domestic programs would be spared, including food aid for pregnant women and their children, housing vouchers for the poor, aid for special education and school districts for the poor, and federal aid to historically black colleges and universities. 
 
 Russian Intelligence Members Charged in Massive Yahoo Hack 
 
 The Department of Justice charged two Russian intelligence officers and two criminal hackers in the 2014 hacking of Yahoo that affected at least 500 million accounts and millions of user contracts. (Published Wednesday, March 15, 2017) 
 
 But the National Institutes of Health would absorb a $5.8 billion cut despite Trump's talk in a recent address to Congress of finding "cures to the illnesses that have always plagued us." Subsidies for airlines serving rural airports in Trump strongholds would be eliminated. It would also shut down Amtrak's money-losing long-distance routes and kill off a popular $500 million per-year "TIGER Grant" program for highway projects created by Obama. 
 
 Copyright Associated Press / NBC Bay Area ||||| A portion of President Donald Trump's first proposed budget, focusing on the Department of Defense, and released by the Office of Management and Budget, is photographed in Washington, Wednesday, March... (Associated Press) 
 
 A portion of President Donald Trump's first proposed budget, focusing on the Department of Defense, and released by the Office of Management and Budget, is photographed in Washington, Wednesday, March 15, 2017. President Donald Trump is unveiling a $1.15 trillion budget, a far-reaching overhaul of federal... (Associated Press) 
 
 A portion of President Donald Trump's first proposed budget, focusing on the Department of Defense, and released by the Office of Management and Budget, is photographed in Washington, Wednesday, March 15, 2017. President Donald Trump is unveiling a $1.15 trillion budget, a far-reaching overhaul of federal... (Associated Press) A portion of President Donald Trump's first proposed budget, focusing on the Department of Defense, and released by the Office of Management and Budget, is photographed in Washington, Wednesday, March... (Associated Press) 
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is unveiling a $1.15 trillion budget, a far-reaching overhaul of federal government spending that slashes a dozen departments to finance a significant increase in the military and make a down payment on a U.S.-Mexico border wall. 
 
 Thursday's scheduled budget release will upend Washington with cuts to long-promised campaign targets like foreign aid and the Environmental Protection Agency as well as strong congressional favorites such as medical research, help for homeless veterans and community development grants. 
 
 "A budget that puts America first must make the safety of our people its number one priority — because without safety, there can be no prosperity," Trump said in a message accompanying his proposed budget that was titled "America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again." 
 
 The $54 billion boost for the military is the largest since President Ronald Reagan's Pentagon buildup in the 1980s, promising immediate money for troop readiness, the fight against Islamic State militants and procurement of new ships, fighter jets and other weapons. The 10 percent Pentagon boost is financed by $54 billion in cuts to foreign aid and domestic agencies that had been protected by former President Barack Obama. 
 
 The budget goes after the frequent targets of the party's staunchest conservatives, eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts, legal aid for the poor, low-income heating assistance and the AmeriCorps national service program established by former President Bill Clinton. 
 
 Such programs were the focus of lengthy battles dating to the GOP takeover of Congress in 1995 and have survived prior attempts to eliminate them. Lawmakers will have the final say on Trump's proposal in the arduous budget process. 
 
 The budget is set for official release Thursday morning, but The Associated Press and other news outlets obtained the document in advance. 
 
 Law enforcement agencies like the FBI would be spared, while the border wall would receive an immediate $1.5 billion infusion in the ongoing fiscal year, with another $2.6 billion planned for the 2018 budget year starting Oct. 1. 
 
 Trump repeatedly claimed during the campaign that Mexico would pay for the wall when, in fact, U.S. taxpayers will foot the bill. 
 
 Twelve of the government's 15 Cabinet agencies would absorb cuts under the president's proposal. The biggest losers are Agriculture, Labor, State, and the Cabinet-level EPA. The Defense Department, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Veterans Affairs are the winners. 
 
 More than 3,000 EPA workers would lose their jobs and programs such as Obama's Clean Power Plan, which would tighten regulations on emissions from power plants seen as contributing to global warming, would be eliminated. Popular EPA grants for state and local drinking and wastewater projects would be preserved, however. 
 
 Trump's proposal covers only roughly one-fourth of the approximately $4 trillion federal budget, the discretionary portion that Congress passes each year. It doesn't address taxes, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, or make predictions about deficits and the economy. Those big-picture details are due in mid-May, and are sure to show large — probably permanent — budget deficits. Trump has vowed not to cut Social Security and Medicare and is dead set against raising taxes. 
 
 "The president's going to keep his promises" to leave Social Security and Medicare alone, said White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney. 
 
 Trump's proposal is sure to land with a thud on Capitol Hill, and not just with opposition Democrats outraged over cuts to pet programs such as renewable energy, climate change research and rehabilitation of housing projects. 
 
 Republicans like Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio are irate over planned elimination of a program to restore the Great Lakes. Top Republicans like Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker of Tennessee are opposed to drastic cuts to foreign aid. And even GOP defense hawks like Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry of Texas aren't satisfied with the $54 billion increase for the military. 
 
 Before the two sides go to war over Trump's 2018 plan, they need to clean up more than $1.1 trillion in unfinished agency budgets for the current year. A temporary catchall spending bill expires April 28; negotiations have barely started and could get hung up over Trump's request for the wall and additional border patrol and immigration enforcement agents, just for starters. 
 
 Some of the most politically sensitive domestic programs would be spared, including food aid for pregnant women and their children, housing vouchers for the poor, aid for special education and school districts for the poor, and federal aid to historically black colleges and universities. 
 
 But the National Institutes of Health would absorb a $5.8 billion cut despite Trump's talk in a recent address to Congress of finding "cures to the illnesses that have always plagued us." Subsidies for airlines serving rural airports in Trump strongholds would be eliminated. Also zeroed out would be funding for subsidies of Amtrak's money-losing long-distance routes, and a $500 million per-year "TIGER Grant" program for highway projects created by Obama. 
 
 In a blow to endangered GOP Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada, Trump's budget seeks $120 million to revive the mothballed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, which is hugely unpopular in his state and was largely killed by the efforts of Democratic former Sen. Harry Reid. Heller is up for re-election next year in a state that backed Democrat Hillary Clinton.
– President Trump's first budget proposal was officially unveiled Thursday morning—and it delivers exactly what he promised. The proposal—titled "America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again"—contains cuts that the Washington Post says could be the biggest reduction in federal programs since the post-World War II drawdown. The Environmental Protection Agency and the State Department are the hardest-hit agencies according to budget previews, with cuts of around 30%. Military spending would be beefed up by $54 billion under the proposal, $1.5 billion is earmarked for a border wall, and Homeland Security would get a 6.8% funding increase. A roundup of coverage about the $1.15 trillion spending plan: The document is here. Politico reports that the budget is "red meat" for Trump's base, with deep cuts to their most disliked government agencies and programs, though it is also what's known as a "skinny budget" because it is so short on details. A more detailed budget will be out in May. The AP lists winners and losers. The latter group includes the departments of Energy, Labor, and Transportation, along with after-school programs and many independent agencies supported by tax dollars. White House budget director Mick Mulvaney acknowledged that the cuts would lead to job losses, Reuters reports. "You can’t drain the swamp and leave all the people in it," he said during a budget preview Wednesday. He said that White House officials had looked at Trump's campaign speeches, and "turned those policies into numbers." The New York Times reports that congressional Republicans have already declared parts of the plan dead on arrival. "The administration’s budget isn’t going to be the budget," Sen. Marco Rubio told reporters. "We do the budget here. The administration makes recommendations, but Congress does budgets." The Hill notes that such proposals tend to be "little more than guidance" for lawmakers—and that the Senate shot down Obama's 2015 budget 98 to 1. The AP reports that the budget funds Trump's boost for the Pentagon, the biggest since Ronald Reagan's, with cuts to conservative targets including the National Endowment for the Arts, legal aid for the poor, and the AmeriCorps national service program. NBC notes that Trump's proposal, which makes cuts to 12 out of 15 Cabinet agencies, only covers the "discretionary" quarter of the $4 trillion budget for the fiscal year that starts in October. The portion dealing with issues including taxation, Social Security, and Medicare is due in mid-May. The Washington Post reports that the budget proposal's elimination of funding for public broadcasting means that Big Bird's doom has been predicted once again, though public broadcasting has survived previous "zero funding" proposals all the way back to Richard Nixon.