Mulvaney: Budget Leaves 'More Than Enough' for State Dept

Even with President Donald Trump's first budget calling for a 28 percent cut to the State Department's budget, there will be "more than enough money" to allow it to maintain its core diplomatic functions, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said Thursday.

"Keep in mind, a lot of the foreign aid is in the State Department budget," Mulvaney told the "CBS This Morning." "A lot of the money for climate change work is in the State Department budget. That's one of the reasons you see such a large reduction there."

Mulvaney said Cabinet secretaries were consulted while they worked on the president's $1.5 trillion budget. The proposal overhauls federal government spending while funding significant increases in military spending and allowing for a down payment for his planned U.S.-Mexico border wall.

"We talked to all the Cabinet secretaries, all the other directors and walked through program by program," Mulvaney said. "We gave them a lot of flexibility. We'll continue do so in how these agencies will get cuts or in the case of the Defense Department, Homeland Security, how they get increases."

There have already been some Republicans saying Trump's budget is "dead on arrival" in Congress, noted show anchor Charlie Rose, who pointed out Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said State Department cuts will not be approved.

Politicians have their different priorities, Mulvaney said, noting he is a former U.S. Representative and is used to representing his own state, but Trump, as president, represents the entire country, and his budget represents that.

The proposal does not address infrastructure improvements, but Mulvaney said that is becasue it has been moved out of the discretionary spending area, which Trump's budget covers.

"We're putting it in a larger infrastructure plan, so yes, if you do see reductions in certain programs, that's not because of a lack of the commitment to infrastructure," Mulvaney said. "We think it's a better way to do it."

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