Budget Nominee Will Face Daunting Math

In selecting Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) as his budget director, President-elect Donald Trump has chosen a strong advocate of balanced budgets accomplished through deep spending cuts.

It will be Mulvaney’s difficult task to craft a budget that adheres to this goal while accommodating Trump’s many campaign promises to increase spending and cut taxes.

In selecting Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) as his budget director, President-elect Donald Trump has chosen a strong advocate of balanced budgets accomplished through deep spending cuts.

It will be Mulvaney’s difficult task to craft a budget that adheres to this goal while accommodating Trump’s many campaign promises to increase spending and cut taxes.

Some of his hard-line positions might prove difficult to maintain as budget director where his job will require negotiations with his former colleagues in Congress to push through the administration’s fiscal agenda.

This will include decisions on Fiscal Year 2018 spending caps, replacement costs of repealing the Affordable Care Act, and an inevitable need to raise the statutory debt limit.