well we're getting the clearest picture yet of how President Trump and his administration want to spend federal money the White House has unveiled a $ 1.7 trillion dollar budget blueprint that calls for steep cuts to public health housing education and the environment while boosting funds for areas dear to the president's heart like Homeland Security and the Department of Defense democratic leaders from New Jersey are vowing to prevent the budget from becoming law but just how much power do they have our Washington DC correspondent Ben Hulac puts the proposal into context ben good to talk to you um so we know obviously the president has a priority to cut federal spending can you walk us through some of the areas that will take a hit and and which ones pertain to New Jersey when you're looking at the federal budget in broad strokes it can be difficult to pinpoint exactly how a federal program will hit a particular state um the there are four points there are four cabinet agencies I should say that are getting more money that that are proposed to get more money that's the Pentagon uh Department of Homeland Security Veterans Affairs and Transportation so perhaps uh there's a big hub for example in South Jersey for the FAA that falls within DOT and perhaps they're lined up with uh for rather some more funding i should underscore this is an opening message this is an opening uh bargaining chip that the White House sent out last Friday and ultimately it's Congress that will write and pass its own budget the president will then sign it but that's this is really kicking off a monthslong process and this is what the administration wants not necessarily what will happen what does it say Ben i mean obviously it's an America first agenda we've heard the president say that over and over again since his time on the campaign trail but um what does it say about his focus with these uh with the spending plan he's put forward really the two points that stand out are the as I mentioned uh four cabinet agencies are getting more money would be slated to get more money and the priorities here are clearly immigration and national security or at least that's that's the message that's emanating from the White House um of course funding from this uh could go toward mass deportations and a hardline immigration crackdown there's money set aside for a land land wall a border wall between the US and Mexico that of course was hallmark of his first term um I would also point out to viewers that this is separate from the ongoing budget reconciliation talk and there could be hundreds of millions hundreds of billions I should say worth of funding for immigration policy from that process as well um but none of this is guaranteed we are still I would say middleish uh to to coin a term in the process of reconciliation and the the budget talks basically just started uh this week yeah right the the budget hearings are just sort of kicking off but what about spending for areas like social security Medicaid Medicare does that come through the reconciliation process because I don't see that outlined here in this budget blueprint right it could be affected under reconciliation all those things you just mentioned Medicaid Medicare Social Security those are outside of the annual spending bill uh for folks at home that's you might hear on the radio or on television or read about it the spending bill is sort of what keeps the government running from day to day those big projects you just mentioned Bri uh Medicare Medicaid Social Security those are separate those are funded differently and so that would not be affected um Congress really has punted on uh a long-term fix for Social Security and then of course Medicare and Medicaid are big targets big points of concern for uh in particular Democrats during the reconciliation negotiations they are honing in on what deep cuts to Medicaid in particular could mean for the most vulnerable citizens among us yeah and that's not something that is uh special for any state new Jersey of course would be affected just like all other 49 states very quickly I know you spoke with members of New Jersey's delegation Democrats in particular what are they saying specifically that they'll use within their levers of power to try to put a stop to this budget proposal well this budget the budget proposal is um it hearkens back I think in a lot of ways to the first uh budget that Mr trump outlined in 2017 when he was first president that those cuts were not terribly popular um if you go home to your districts and say "Hey we have to cut uh half of the EPA budget and we're still somehow going to have clean air and clean water."

That's a bit of a hard sell and that applies across the board ultimately those budget cuts that he proposed did not and Congress as I said at the top will in many ways do its own things there are deep constituencies and areas of focus across the federal bureaucracy and uh it is this Byzantine and highly complicated organism this this massive economic organism down to every district and talking to Democrats Republicans independents a lot of these things on the ground federal programs federal money at home on the ground is very hard to uh do away with it touches people's lives in ways they don't always realize yeah um all right Ben we have to leave it there ben Hulac for us our Washington DC correspondent you can read uh Ben's story on this and all of his reporting on our website njspotlightenews.org ben thanks so much