On Thursday’s NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer introduced a report on the “major battle” brewing over President Trump’s budget proposal by proclaiming: “The blueprint just out this morning already facing some criticism. So what's in it and which popular programs could see their funding slashed?”
Correspondent Peter Alexander warned that the plan “could include some of the biggest cutbacks to federal programs in decades.” The headline on screen blared: “Trump Budget Plan Slashes Federal Government; Military Grows Amid Major State Dept. & EPA Cuts.”
Alexander hyped the change in funding priorities as “a seismic shift in government spending”:
...the President’s proposing to pump $54 billion more into the Pentagon, a 10% increase, plus more for veterans benefits, school vouchers, and infrastructure. And a 6% increase for Homeland Security, including $1.5 million to build that wall....now promising to offset increases with deep cuts elsewhere, slashing roughly 30% for the budgets of the State Department and the EPA, hitting funding for foreign aide and efforts to combat global warming.
The reporter fretted that the plan also called for “Eliminating funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, making PBS and NPR rely on – ” a soundbite played of a PBS announcer saying “Viewers like you.” Patrick Butler from America’s Public Television Stations sounded the alarm: “We're going to lose many stations in small markets and in rural America throughout the heartland of our country if this federal funding is eliminated.”
Conveniently missing from segment was any mention of the notorious liberal bias of PBS and NPR.
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In a segment minutes later, Lauer lectured United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley on the proposed cuts to the State Department: “People are saying that's going to cut to the bone....Some of that money goes to peacekeeping missions, talking about humanitarian aide to impoverished nations and regions of the world, we’re talking about vaccine programs. These are the ways that the United States has expressed its leadership in the past.”
On ABC’s Good Morning America, co-host George Stephanopoulos grilled White House budget director Mick Mulvaney about the plan and declared that “cuts this deep mean the budget is dead on arrival.”
Here is a full transcript of Alexander’s March 16 report:
7:05 AM ET
MATT LAUER: Meanwhile, the President is facing another major battle this morning over his first budget proposal. The blueprint just out this morning already facing some criticism. So what's in it and which popular programs could see their funding slashed? NBC's Peter Alexander has that part of the story. Peter, good morning to you.
PETER ALEXANDER: Hey, Matt, good morning to you. The White House is unveiling its federal spending priorities today in what it is touting as the America First Budget. But it could include some of the biggest cutbacks to federal programs in decades.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Trump Budget Plan Slashes Federal Government; Military Grows Amid Major State Dept. & EPA Cuts]
President Trump back on the stump Wednesday night in Nashville.
DONALD TRUMP: Got to get the health care done. We got to start the tax reductions.
ALEXANDER: Now trying to close his biggest deal yet, a seismic shift in government spending.
TRUMP: Our budget calls for one of the single largest increases in defense spending history in this country.
ALEXANDER: New this morning, the President’s proposing to pump $54 billion more into the Pentagon, a 10% increase, plus more for veterans benefits, school vouchers, and infrastructure. And a 6% increase for Homeland Security, including $1.5 million to build that wall, despite this promise to send the bill to Mexico.
TRUMP: Who’s going to pay for the wall?
CROWD: Mexico!
ALEXANDER: The President now promising to offset increases with deep cuts elsewhere, slashing roughly 30% for the budgets of the State Department and the EPA, hitting funding for foreign aide and efforts to combat global warming. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in Tokyo, taking the massive cuts to his department in stride.
REX TILLERSON: The level of spending that the State Department has been undertaking in the past – in particularly in this past year – is simply not sustainable.
ALEXANDER: Eliminating funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, making PBS and NPR rely on –
PBS ANNOUNCER: Viewers like you.
PATRICK BUTLER [AMERICA’S PUBLIC TELEVISION STATIONS]: We're going to lose many stations in small markets and in rural America throughout the heartland of our country if this federal funding is eliminated.
ALEXANDER: Returning to part of the rust bell that made him president, Mr. Trump promoting a campaign promise kept.
TRUMP: Breaking news, General Motors announced that they’re adding or keeping 900 jobs right here in Michigan.
ALEXANDER: But GM says 680 of those are workers who learned last week they’d be laid off, with no set date to get their jobs back.
TRUMP: I think it's a disgrace.
ALEXANDER: The President also responded overnight, after MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow revealed part of his 2005 federal tax return, obtained by DCReport.org.
TRUMP: I have no idea where they got it, but it's illegal, and you're not supposed to have it, and it's not supposed to be leaked.
ALEXANDER: Back to that budget proposal, it certainly is hardly final right now. Ultimately it's up to Congress, and there's already resistance there – fierce resistance – including some among Republicans. It's the lawmakers on Capitol Hill who get to authorize government spending. Matt and Savannah?
LAUER: Alright, Peter Alexander. Peter, thank you.
