Page Turner: The giant Trump administration budget delivered yesterday bears the slogan “Efficient, Effective, Accountable,” but the plan outlined includes $7 trillion in deficits over the next 10 years while spending more on defense and less on domestic programs.

The Trump plan doesn’t have a snowball’s chance of being enacted as written and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said it’s really “a messaging” document. The message is that they have ditched the Republican quest for balanced budgets.

The budget they offer reneges on the budget bill agreed to just last week by both parties, taking some of the money designated for domestic spending and giving it to the Defense Department. Mulvaney said in a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan, “The administration does not believe these nondefense spending levels comport with its vision for the proper role and size of the federal government.”

About $23 billion is in there for border security, most of it to build President Trump’s promised wall. The Trump plan would increase spending to take care of veterans and fight opioid abuse while drastically cutting the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency. It would cut the EPA’s Office of Science and Technology by nearly half.

Amazingly, after Trump signed off on tax reforms that that increase the federal deficit by $1.5 trillion, Mulvaney said the increased domestic spending approved by Congress would add too much to the deficit.

Pill Pushers: Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin and other opioid painkillers, announced that it is laying off half its sales force and will no longer market the drugs direct to doctors.  The aggressive sales campaign by Purdue and other drug makers coincided with the rise of the crisis and left state and local governments to handle the mess.

Money: The Dow Jones gained back 410 points yesterday but probably is not at the end of the rocky road it took last week. The stock market is in “correction” mode after making astronomical gains.

Nation: Donald Trump, Jr.’s wife Vanessa went to the hospital in Manhattan yesterday after opening an envelope addressed to her husband containing a white powder. The powder was later found to be cornstarch. The letter was postmarked in Boston and sent to the home of Trump’s mother-in-law. — Two Baltimore police officers who were part of a special unit created to seize illegal firearms were found guilty yesterday in federal court of stealing cash and guns and re-selling drugs. Six other officers pleaded guilty and testified.

World: Over the weekend in India, a 14-car passenger train plowed into a herd of elephants crossing the tracks. Two adults and two calves were killed outright. A third adult died later after efforts to save it.

Villagers had waved flashlights to get the engineer to slow his train, but he didn’t know what the signals meant until he had the herd in sight, and by then it was too late to stop.

Five Rings: Seventeen-year-old Chloe Kim dominated the field in the women’s halfpipe to win the gold medal. Kim sealed it on her first run with a score of 93.75, then killed it on her third and final run with a near-perfect 98.75. Liu Jiayu took silver with an 89.75 to become the first Chinese snowboarder to win a medal at the Olympics.

In the House: Headline grabber Omarosa Manigault was back on “Celebrity Big Brother” revealing more about her former housemates at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The fired Trump aide who has turned on the President said, “We would be begging for the days of Trump back if Pence became president. I’m Christian. I love Jesus. But he thinks Jesus is telling him to say things. I’m like, ‘Jesus isn’t saying that.’ It’s scary.”

She also said the administration plans to get more aggressive about deporting illegal immigrants. “I’ve seen the plan,” she said.

The Obit Page: Vic Damone, an old school crooner who was popular in the early years after World War II, has died at age 89 in Miami Beach. Today he is less well remembered than the contemporaries of his heyday, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, and Tony Bennett.

   Damone was a long-term survivor in the music business who recorded 2,500 songs over 54 years. His hits included “In the Still of the Night,” “You’d Be So Easy to Love,” “I Don’t Want to Walk Without You” and “Come Rain or Come Shine.”  

Art News: Paintings of President Obama and his wife Michelle were revealed at the National Portrait Gallery yesterday, bringing a new look to the traditionlally stodgy art form.

The President is portrayed sitting in a chair against a leafy and flowery background that symbolizes his roots in Kenya, Hawaii, and Chicago. The strikingly faithful likeness shows him leaning slightly forward with a serious and engaged look on his face. Obama said he unsuccessfully lobbied the artist for smaller ears and less gray hair.

Mrs. Obama is painted against a pale blue background, wearing a flowing white patterned dress that reveals her bare arms, recalling the controversy over her sleeveless dresses. It’s a cool picture, but the problem is that the face doesn’t really look like Michelle.

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