By David Montgomery

St. Paul Pioneer Press

ST. PAUL — Even as he battles with Republicans over Minnesota’s budget, Gov. Mark Dayton is taking some time to criticize President Donald Trump’s proposed national budget.

The DFL governor said Trump’s budget has “draconian cuts” that would “have a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable Minnesotans, including children, the elderly, and those living in poverty.”

Trump, a Republican, says his first proposed federal budget would “reprioritize Federal spending so that it advances the safety and security of the American people.” He would increase defense spending by $54 billion, and cut that amount from other parts of the budget.

Dayton, in a letter, identified nearly two dozen federal programs facing cuts or elimination that each spend millions of dollars on Minnesota. That includes a water infrastructure program that spent $50 million in rural communities last year, student aid grants that spent $19 million on Minnesota college students in 2014-15, and the Low-Income Heating Energy Assistance Program that spent $114 million on 339,900 Minnesotans last year.

“Federal budget decisions directly impact the quality and quantity of services Minnesotans receive,” Dayton wrote.

Trump, in a message to Congress introducing his budget, defended the cuts as “sensible and rational.”

“We are going to do more with less,” Trump wrote. “Every agency and department will be driven to achieve greater efficiency and to eliminate wasteful spending in carrying out their honorable service to the American people.”

Though Trump proposed the budget, nothing in it is guaranteed to become law. Congress writes budgets and often makes wholesale changes to presidential requests. The House and Senate, both controlled by Republicans, will likely develop a budget in coming months.