When President Trump addresses a joint session of Congress, today, he'll be laying out his plan to make the federal government to do more with less, and that's not sitting well with lawmakers who do the dirty work of crafting a budget.
The proposal increases defense spending by $54 billion while cutting other federal agencies by the same amount, according to an administration official. Congressman Henry Cuellar wants to know where all that money will come from.
"How are we going to pay for that? Are we going to raise taxes? Are we going to add that to the deficit," he asks Newsradio 1200 WOAI. "If we're going to do dollar-for-dollar, where are we going to take it from? We going to take it from Social Security? We going to take it from Medicare/Medicaid? Where do you come up with $54 billion?"
Cuellar (D-TX) says that would be over $600 billion for the military, and right now, it's half of the budget. "I want to see a strong military, but I'm very interested to see how we'll pay for it."
There has already been fallout from the president's hiring freeze in the form of cuts to daycares on military installations, something that has irked Cuellar. If the men and women who serve our country are worrying about the kids, he argues that they're mind is not on their job, which is to protect the country.
"Leaders should be using a scalpel, not a chainsaw, when they're making this delicate budget decision," he said.
1200 WOAI news will air the President's historic remarks like starting at 8 PM.
IMAGE": GETTY