In the United States, the Trump administration has unveiled plans to make sweeping budget cuts at the State Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and a host of other government departments and programs.
The cuts are designed to pay for the construction of a wall along the US border with Mexico, and for the President's proposed $54 billion military build-up.
The budget foresees a seismic reshaping of America's priorities both at home and internationally.
From Washington, Simon Marks reports.
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Anyone looking for an indication of just how much President Trump plans to change America can now find the answer in black and white.
His draft budget is a recipe for a radically different country….an equation that cuts money from a host of programs and government departments and diverts the funding to the Pentagon for a military modernization program, and the Department of Homeland Security for the construction of a wall along America's border with Mexico.
The President's Budget Director is Mick Mulvaney.
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Elsewhere….turns out to be places like the Environmental Protection Agency.
It will lose one third of its funding….adjusted for inflation, its budget will be at its lowest level for 50 years.
Director Mulvaney said that reflects the President's determination to defund research into climate change.
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Over at the State Department the proposals call for a 28 per cent budget cut.
Foreign aid, public diplomacy and democracy promotion take the brunt of the hit.
So the budget director was asked, what happens to all those people starving for food or democracy in other parts of the world?
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TAKE SOUNDUP - KRAMER "It's a huge cut and the State Department I think will be radically changed should this cut actually go through".
VO KRAMER David Kramer was Assistant Secretary of State in charge of many of those programs now on the block….. under the last Republican administration led by President George W. Bush.
TAKE KRAMER SOUNDBITE (Super: David Kramer, Former Assistant Secretary of State)
"If we pull out of the activity and work of trying to advance the course of freedom, human rights, rule of law, democracy, transparency, I do think that we're going to have a more unstable world around us".
The White House is also under fire for the attack the budget wages against recipients of relatively small government grants that operate social, cultural and artistic programs in the United States.
Public broadcasting here will be defunded….so will the National Endowment for the Arts….the US Institute for Peace….and "Meals on Wheels".
TAKE VIDEO SOUNDLCLIP
The "Meals on Wheels" program delivers food to 2 and half million aging Americans and checks up on their welfare at the same time.
But President Trump is proposing to reduce its funding, his budget director saying the program is "not showing any results".
Ellie Holander, the organizations' President and CEO, disagrees.
HOLLANDER
Any cuts would be devastating".
"We can feed a senior Meals on Wheels for an entire year for the equivalent cost of that same senior on average being in the hospital for one day or a nursing home for ten. So really we should be investing in these programs because they are actually saving us money, besides doing social and moral good, there are also economic benefits that accrue to our nation, our economy, our communities but most importantly to seniors who would like to live more vibrant lives in their own homes".
VO But to preserve her funding, she…and all the other groups targeted for cuts….must now begin a scorched earth lobbying process on Capitol Hill in a bid to encourage Republican lawmakers to turn against their own President.
The budget will almost certainly not go through in its current form…..but it is a statement of President Trump's intention and a clear indication that unlike former Republican President George H. W. Bush, he has no interest in leading a "kinder, gentler nation".
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