The heads of some of the departments that could lose money under President Donald Trump's proposed budget understand that cuts could be coming, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said Thursday.
"Let's make no mistake about this," Mulvaney told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program. "This is not a soft power budget. It's a hard power budget. It has $54 billion worth more of defense and the soft power comes out of the State Department. That's exactly what the president wants."
Under Trump's plan, more than 3,000 EPA workers would lose their jobs, while former President Barack Obama's Clean Power Plan would be eliminated. The plan does preserve grants for state and local drinking and wastewater projects would be preserved, but research into climate change would be eliminated.
Other major cuts would be felt in the State Department, the plan revealed Wednesday.
Mulvaney said EPA Director Scott Pruitt took the helm of an agency that he knew the president wanted to shrink.
"Looking at the numbers that we still have in the EPA, we know they can still do their core function of making sure the environment is clean. but it stops that mission creep we have seen for so long," said Mulvaney.
Funding for both NPR and PBS could be phased out as well, said Mulvaney, because Trump "finally got to the point where he said 'do I really want to make the make the coal miner in West Virginia, the auto worker in Ohio, the single mom in Detroit pay for the National Endowment for the Arts and Public Broadcasting?' He said no."
Mulvaney said working on the budget with Trump makes him feel almost as if he's in the private sector once again, as they are working to determine if programs makes sense, help the public or are a good use of money.
"I'm sure I get the impression that question hasn't been asked for a long time in Washington D.C.," said Mulvaney.
There will be several special interest programs cut, as Trump "doesn't represent special interests or represent a particular district or state. He represents everybody. "