The President's Priorities

A week after President Trump signed a two-year budget deal, the White House released a new Trumpian budget proposal to Congress to highlight the President's priorities. His $4.4 trillion budget proposal stands against many of the promises made before the election and seems to be a "manifesto against the poor." It boasts even more military spending ballooning their budget beyond the point of absurdity. All the while cutting social programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicare. And despite all the drastic cuts, the deficit would explode nearly $1 trillion dollars in just one year and over $7 trillion after a decade. With a tax giveaway for corporations and this new budget proposal, it is crystal clear that Republicans in power no longer care about the deficit.

Fortunately, the new budget proposal isn't likely to gain any traction in Congress. Even some Republicans admit Congress will mostly ignore the President's new budget. “Budgets are aspirational documents and seldom have a real impact on spending,” said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. That doesn't mean that this budget isn't important, though. While budgets are "aspirational documents," it shows us what the Trump administration would do if unrestrained by Congress. As the saying goes, budgets are "moral documents" that show us how the authors would allocate resources for our nation. Clearly, Trump's priorities do not reflect the plight of the common man.

Trump wants to focus on increasing military spending even further, even though we spend more on our military than any nation in the world. In fact, over 54 percent of our current budget is spent on our military. To pay for increased military spending, Trump has proposed drastic cuts in the social safety net and in various agencies dedicated to protecting citizens. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would see a cut of 34 percent by slashing virtually all programs related to climate change. The Office of Science and Technology would see a nearly 50 percent cut. The State Department would lose 26 percent of its funding. Medicaid, which provides health insurance to the poor, would lose $250 billion over a decade. Even Medicare, the popular government health insurance program for seniors, would get a $236 billion (over a decade) cut. Subsidized student loans would end and student loan forgiveness would be eliminated, making the student loan crisis (over $1 trillion) even worse. None of these proposed cuts would benefit American citizens. The only ones benefitting from this would be corporations and the politicians they bought.

The only benefit coming out of this proposal is the $200 billion in federal funds intended to spur $1.5 trillion in infrastructure investments with state, local and private partners over the next 10 years. Unfortunately, even that is riddled with problems. $200 billion may seem like a lot, but many lawmakers believe $200 billion is far too little to create a steady stream of revenue for infrastructure. The only way that would work is by allowing private companies ownership of the roads who will then charge fees and tolls for maintenance. This is a "regressive tax" that would ultimately limit our freedoms to travel across our own country. Just another giveaway to large corporations at the expense of the American taxpayer.

It is painfully obvious that the deficit isn't truly a concern for Republicans in Congress and Donald Trump. This proposal explodes the deficit even with the optimistic numbers put forth by the White House. And with a sweeping tax cut of $1.5 trillion for corporations and the mega-rich, the national debt and deficit will reach new heights that could lead us into economic disaster. By slashing programs like SNAP, Medicare, and Medicaid to pay for these cuts and deficits, ordinary tax-payers will suffer as their tax dollars are funneled to corporations increasing wealth inequality in our country. We must end this cycle. Demand your representatives to fight on your behalf. Demand that our taxes are used to benefit all citizens rather than the top 1 percent.