May 23, 2017

Trump's trillion dollar war against decency

Mic - President Donald Trump's first budget may be going nowhere on Capitol Hill, but that doesn't mean parts of the proposed spending package will not become reality. Republicans have displayed more division than unity on high-profile policy issues, debating health care and taxes with little agreement. But the budget, released today, offers plenty of red meat for conservatives.

Highlights of the more than $1 trillion in cuts to social programs in Trump's budget:
• Cutting $616 billion from Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program over 10 years, which assumes passage of the American Health Care Act.

• Cutting nearly $200 billion from food stamps, which helps feed 44 million people annually.

• Cutting $72 billion from programs for people with disabilities, supposedly by ferreting out waste and fraud. (Note that this budget does not cut Social Security, though this cut to Social Security Disability Insurance could be considered breaking a campaign promise.)

• Consolidating student loan repayment plans (saving $76 billion), ending subsidized student loans (saving $39 billion) and ending Public Service Loan Forgiveness (saving $859 million).

• Cutting $50 billion from agriculture subsidies.
Trump's plan proposed a nearly half-a-trillion dollar increase to the Pentagon's budget over 10 years, while claiming he will save more than that — $593 billion — by ending wars.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Something like 85% of the ag subsidies go to wealthiest top 10% of the 'farmers', so that really isn't that big an outrage. There is nothing quite so corrupt as the corporate welfare boondoggle termed agricultural subsidy. The program has long ago become convoluted to benefit the wealthiest of agricultural interests. That, along with the taxpayer subsidized crop insurance, have been public gifts to the deep pockets for all too many years.

Anonymous said...

I really didn’t think that Trump would be this awful.

He's a New Yorker, he must have at least a few progressive friends.

The thing that really galls me is that the one good thing he promised - stopping the wars - is the one thing he totally reneged on.

I am glad that I did not vote for him. I almost did vote for him, just to keep warmonger Hillary out of office. But he is turning out to be every bit as bad as she is.

Pollyanna Pete said...

Well, Trump seems to be dialing back on the war thing.

He lobbed a few bombs and missiles just to get a little love from the neocons and the lefties. It's the only time NPR had a kind word for him.