February 10th 2020

By Laura Clawson

Daily Kos

Donald Trump has released a budget plan that is a total non-starter in Congress—and, coming in an election year, shows us what kind of president Trump is hoping to be for another four years. Trump’s budget increases military spending by 0.3% while slashing nondefense spending by 5%. That means military spending would be $740.5 billion, while spending on everything else would be $590 billion.

Medicaid, federal housing assistance, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would lose $292 billion, with Trump imposing stricter work requirements. Those aren’t cuts that would be achieved by making people not need the help; they’re cuts that would be achieved by increasing human suffering.

While Democrats talk about fighting the student debt crisis through sweeping loan forgiveness, Trump would slash existing student loan forgiveness programs by $170 billion.

Federal disability insurance benefits would lose $70 billion. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would lose 9% of their budget, and no, adding some coronavirus-inspired funding for infectious diseases doesn’t make that right.

Trump’s budget would cut foreign aid by 21%, but put another $2 billion into his border wall. Trump wants to send people to the moon and Mars, so NASA would get a 12% boost. But he doesn’t care about the air we breathe or the water we drink, and he rejects the science on climate change, so the Environmental Protection Agency would see a massive 26% cut.

Trump plans all these cuts to needed services while not just increasing the military budget, but also assuming that the Republican tax law, with its cuts for corporations and the wealthy, will be extended for another decade. This is the agenda he’s looking to bring to a second term in the White House, and virtually every line of it is a reminder of why it’s essential to defeat him.

Posted with permission