I suppose President Trump will smile as he holds up the budget for all to see, like all kids do with their newest drawing. Will he put it on the refrigerator in the White House?
His budget is a basket full of mostly deplorable conservative and libertarian dreams and desires. It is not something that is new from this crowd; Trump just has the audacity to bring it out in the open, to shine a light on their aspirations and try to make them come true. If he gets his way, it is a strong first step towards shrinking the government so much it can be drowned in a bathtub.
Except for another Republican wet dream: more bombs and weapons.
In order to pay for increasing the amount of our military spending from being larger than the next eight countries combined to being larger than the next ten, they kill—or maim—programs that are just a waste of money. Things like The Corporation for Public Broadcast, the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities and completely defunded in his wet dream of a budget. They would like to kill NPR too, but it only receives about 9% of its budget from the Feds.
Other things, some of the most deplorable things it proposes because, you know, being poor is a choice, is to kill the Community Development Block Grant Program, which works to provide low-income housing and attempts to revitalize the inner cities, reducing blighted areas and slums. Makes sense, as Herr Trump got his training in real estate by collecting rents from poor people before he had to leave that business for racial discrimination and refocused his plan to stealing from banks and desperate people while leasing his name to projects because he bumbled too many of the ones he managed. (One may call that last line an ad hominem attack, but it is not. His business “success” is why many people voted for him, which makes his background relevant. It is instructive to remember that had he invested Daddy’s $250 million in index funds, he would be worth two to three times what he claims to be worth now. If one cannot beat the market by running a business, the business is, bluntly, not successful.)
The budget attacks numerous other programs designed to help poor people.
I am not saying there are not places that the spending cannot be cut, because I believe there is waste and duplication. And if Herr Trump were really reducing the spending, I would encourage the hard look at l programs, but this should be done before cuts are made.
If we would cut the military spending by the same amount as the sum of cuts in the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Health and Human Services, Labor and the EPA—$40 billion—we would still spend more on our military than the next seven countries combined.
The budget also has the nonsensical rule that for every new regulation, two have to be eliminated, and the down-right scary requirement that a Trump political appointee has to approve all new regulations—how long before there is a Party Apparatchik must approve everything in every level of government? Will he install his version of the Waffen-SS and Gestapo to ensure purity with the Trump Regime?
The budget is almost certainly dead on arrival and the proposals of any President serve as only a jumping-off point for the budgeting process. It is hard to see individual member of Congress jump on this because a $40 billion cut is programs is roughly the elimination of some $32 billion in salaries—probably more than 400,000 jobs, or put another way, killing 1,000 jobs for every House seat. I expect Congress to go all NIMBY on it, protecting the jobs in their back yard, even if they want to cut the programs out of some new-found moral courage.
It will not be accepted, but it does show us who Trump really is, what his priorities are. Remember, he is smarter than everyone and knows more than anyone, has the best comprehension and words, so, he is not to be challenged!
What Trump has done is to shine a light on these things many elected Republicans have dreamed about, but were afraid to say in the light. I expect them to scatter like the political cockroaches they are.
And just so we cannot forget his master plan:
petriesan 