This story was originally published on nationaljournal.com on March 17, 2017 The backlash that Republicans are experiencing on their proposed American Health Care Act is very real and should be worrisome to the GOP. But the fallout from President Trump’s proposed budget cuts could cause even greater reverberations. Waste, fraud, and abuse clearly exist in government spending. But it’s also true that most spending programs exist because a lot of people wanted them, or because they were perceived as important priorities, popular or not. Consider the State Department. Early on, the Trump administration proposed to cut the State Department’s budget by as much as 37 percent, roughly $50 billion. The number now seems to be 28 percent—I suspect after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appealed to President Trump to soften the blow. But the consequences would still be very real. When Defense Secretary James Mattis was a four-star general heading up the U.S. Central Command, he once testified before Congress that, “If you don’t fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition ultimately.” Depending on who
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