Trump’s Budget Gets Everything Backward

President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for 2020 is a fairly standard list of conservative priorities. Trump would spend more on the military and border security and cut funding for health care, including Medicare and Medicaid, as well as welfare programs such as food stamps.

The problem with Trump’s budget isn’t the deficits that it would create. These would be substantial — more than $1 trillion a year, or at least 5 percent of gross domestic product. But economists generally agree that the U.S. government can handle more debt than it now has without risking higher interest rates or inflation. Instead, the problem is the budget’s misplaced priorities: It cuts spending on effective and important programs, while spending more on things the U.S. has in abundance.