'Why the secrecy now?' Trump administration accused of budget ploy

Donald Trump and Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought were raked over the coals on Saturday for breaking with a decades-long tradition of releasing the entire budget bill which was recently signe.

In an accusatory column in the New York Times, the ex-staff director of the House Budget Committee,Thomas Kahn, claimed the Trump administration is trying to stall off the firestorm that will ensue when the public and analysts are given the details of what the Republican party has in store for Americans.

In a column for the New York Times, Kahn wrote that,for the last half century, presidents of both parties have, almost without exception, released a comprehensive federal budget proposal to Congress each year,” and now the “Trump administration is breaking with the past."

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Noting that budget has previously been offered up in May, Kahn wrote there is no plan to expose the details soon after Vought admitted releasing one “wasn’t in our interest.

”Calling it a “secret budget,” Kahn pointed out that during Trump’s first term in the Oval Office, the budget details were released in a timely manner, but now there has been a change.

“So why the secrecy now? “ he wrote before adding, “Mr. Vought’s statement suggests an answer. If the administration’s fiscal agenda is as unpopular as its domestic policy law — with further tax cuts for the wealthy and deeper cuts to Medicaid and other popular programs — then hiding it may indeed serve the administration’s interest.”

Kahn maintained, “The skinny budget released in May is deficient. It itemizes only annually appropriated funds — less than one-third of federal spending — and for just one year. This leaves out two-thirds of the budget, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits, as well as deficit and debt projections. That’s a far cry from the traditional detailed multiyear blueprint covering all mandatory and discretionary spending, revenues, projected deficits and debt.”

Pointing out, “Budget secrecy also weakens the Constitution’s vital system of checks and balances by limiting Congress’s ability to analyze and debate the president’s fiscal plans,” he added, “The administration must stop hiding and start governing. It needs to release its full budget proposal now.”

You can read his whole piece here.