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Article snippet: The House Budget Committee on Wednesday approved the 2018 fiscal year budget resolution that would increase military spending, produce billions in cuts to mandatory spending and open the door for a Republican tax reform plan. “With the election of President Trump, our budget goes from being a vision document to being a governing document that outlines how we build a better America for our children and grandchildren,” said committee Chairman MORE (R-Tenn.), who praised the accompanying plan to balance the budget in a decade and reduce the national debt. The resolution passed along party lines with the 22 Republicans supporting and the 14 Democrats opposed after a grueling, twelve-hour markup. It allocated $621.5 billion for defense spending, $511 for non-defense discretionary spending and mandated $203 billion in mandatory spending cuts over the course of a decade. It also included $87 billion in funding specially designated for the war on terror through the Overseas Contingency Operation (OCO) fund, which is not counted in budget caps: $75 billion in defense, $12 billion in non-defense. Both discretionary spending figures were substantially higher than those proposed by President Trump, but non-discretionary spending was below the sequestration-level budget caps. “The budget includes $5.4 trillion in mandatory and discretionary spending cuts, and it ultimately reduces non-defense discretionary investments to the lowest level, relative to the size of the economy, ... Link to the full article to read more