President Donald Trump’s proposed budget could set off “the most dramatic resweeping of the federal government” in decades, according to MS NOW economic analyst Steve Rattner.
On Thursday’s “Morning Joe,” Rattner broke down the president’s 2027 budget proposal and explained why he believes it provides Democrats enormous “fodder” ahead of the midterms.
“You all remember Project 2025? This is kind of a little bit of a reincarnation of that,” Rattner said of Trump’s plan.
“He’s cutting virtually every single domestic agency in the country,” with some departments restored to decades-old funding levels, he continued. “For example, the Labor Department would go down to levels of spending it hasn’t had since 1976, inflation-adjusted,” Rattner said. “The Agriculture Department, which administers food stamps, down to 1976.”
“It’s a sea of red ink for all of our major Cabinet departments,” Rattner added.
However, as the former Treasury official pointed out, under Trump’s proposal one major agency is set to receive a “massive” boost: the Defense Department. The president has proposed a 44% increase, which Rattner noted adds up to the “largest defense budget in history, going all the way back to World War II.”
Rattner said the budget plan upends “the kind of detente — the balance — that the two sides had found on how our budgets are constructed. For a long time, domestic and defense spending were roughly equal as a percent of GDP.”
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“This would be this dramatic reversal, an unbelievable reversal, in which defense spending would be twice as much as a share of GDP,” he explained.
The “Morning Joe” economic analyst said the president’s plan is almost without precedent: “There’s been no remaking of the federal government, of anything along these lines, really, in centuries.”
While Rattner reminded viewers that the budget is simply a proposal from the White House, one that will likely be “dead on arrival” in Congress, he said it provides a political opportunity for Democrats to show the American people what Trump and Republicans’ priorities are ahead of the midterms.
“This all should be great campaign fodder for the Democrats simply to stand up and say, ‘This is what he wants to cut,’” he suggested.
You can watch Rattner’s full analysis in the clip at the top of the page.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW. She was previously a segment producer for “AYMAN” and “The Mehdi Hasan Show.”