Moulton Grills OMB Official On Trump’s Proposed State Department Cuts

Rep. Seth Moulton, vice chair of the House Budget Committee, blasted proposed State Department funding cuts yesterday at a committee hearing on the Trump administration’s proposed budget.

“The president’s former Secretary of Defense [James] Mattis said, ‘If you don’t fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition,’ ” Moulton said to acting U.S. Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought. “Why does this budget do the exact opposite, cutting the State Department by 21%?”

“Because there’s a difference between diplomacy, which we fully fund, and foreign aid, which we think we have gone on too long with providing,” Vought said.

Moulton said on a recent trip to Vietnam, U.S. military officers were “asking for more development money.”

“Does Donald Trump know more than our military officers on the ground?” Moulton asked.

Vought said there has been an increase in spending in some diplomacy efforts, but “we think it's high time that we get out of the situation where we pay for statues to Bob Dylan in Mozambique and other wasteful spending.”

“I think the president ought to spend some more time in Vietnam on the ground,” Moulton said. “It might teach him a little about what development and diplomacy does for our military.”