Trump's Budget Is Basically a Very Long Tweet

[gotsnowgotslush]

Trump's Budget Is Basically a Very Long Tweet

March 16, 2017


It's not meant as a serious proposal. It's just a way for him to send a message to his fans that he hates the EPA and the State Department and loves vets and the Pentagon.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/03/trumps-budget-basically-very-long-tweet


http://www.npr.org/2017/03/16/520379061/read-president-trumps-budget-blueprint

March 16, 20171


The administration wants to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Together, the two groups receive around $300 million annually.

Trump also wants to eliminate funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps to finance public radio and television stations. CPB received $445 million in the current fiscal year.


http://www.npr.org/2017/03/16/52030...rd-power-budget-that-boosts-military-spending

Cuts Women, Infants and Children nutrition assistance from $6.4 billion to $6.2 billion


The Education Department faces a 14 percent cut under the Trump administration budget, which would downsize or eliminate a raft of grants, including for teacher training, afterschool programs, and aid to low-income and minority college students. The cuts would be coupled with a historic investment - $1.4 billion - in charter schools, private schools and other school-choice initiatives.

- Cuts $3.7 billion in grants for teacher training, after-school and summer programs, and aid programs to first-generation and low-income students

- "Significantly" reduces federal work-study aid to college students

- Increases charter school funding by $168 million

- Creates new private-school choice program with $250 million

- Spends $1 billion to encourage districts to allow federal dollars meant for low-income students to follow those students to the public school of their choice

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...-trump-budget-cuts-glance-20170315-story.html

Trump has signaled that he wants to cut red tape in the H-2A program


Trump has embraced the use of temporary foreign workers. He has used low-wage guestworkers himself at Mar-a-Lago, and his son Eric petitioned the Labor Department in recent months to import 29 H-2A workers to tend his Virginia winery. Trump's transition teams for the departments of labor and agriculture are stacked with members of trade groups and right-wing think tanks who support guestworker programs.

A draft executive order leaked to the press last month called for "efficient processing" of H-2A visas.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/03/trump-guestworker-h2a-visa-farmworkers-immigration

Stunted Development of Emperor Carrot

That real world’s gravest threats transcend borders: nuclear proliferation, transnational terrorism, WMDs, North Korean warheads, climate change, pandemics, cyberwarfare, global financial crises, economic dislocation, and mass humanitarian disasters. Only global cooperation can prevent the worst. Like a fly in amber, Trump remains in the zero-sum environment of a venal developer, where one prospers by threatening, blustering, and stifling subcontractors. In this stunted mentality, our engagement with the world has cost us more than all we’ve gained — in prosperity, security, and the spread of human decency.


https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion...ch-doctrine/dadRzUOiAWy20jwJq3VxRI/story.html

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Emperor Carrot's deals

America is slated to be declawed and defanged.Every defense an ordinary American has will be defunded.

International corporations will be ripping America into shreds, for high profits.

Religious institutions will be swimming in money. Taxpayer's money will be filling their pockets.

Russia helped Emperor Carrot gain the biggest bargaining chip there is. Every piece of America that he can trade.


Emperor Carrot has followed Putin's advice. Remove freedom. Make everything a secret. Install your own propaganda organ.

This week was revealing. No one was allowed to hear or see what was being done. Everyone was locked out. Only the Emperor Carrot's men were allowed to know.

Emperor Carrot put America on the carving board.Putin was given the first slice on a silver platter.China will be given a lion's share, too.

http://www.politicususa.com/2012/04/12/people-vs-alec.html


If one is confused about ALEC’s libertarian mission, they can look no further than Koch Industries and the Heritage Foundation’s mission statements. Their stated goal is eliminating the federal government, taxes, regulations, and democracy to reward big business and give them total and complete control of all aspects of governance through privatization and corporate-driven policy decisions at the state level. It is no coincidence that ALEC’s rise coincides with a former anti-government champion, Ronald Reagan, and one can follow the “government is evil” mantra from Reagan’s ascendance as governor of California to his disastrous presidency. Along the way, ALEC has worked tirelessly to accomplish Grover Norquist’s goal of “drowning the government in a bathtub” and turning over the reins of power to wealthy industrialists under the guise of “state’s rights” and Jeffersonian principles.

By now it must be obvious that in referring to Jeffersonian principles, ALEC means “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” is reserved for wealthy white males and their corporations.

ALEC exists to give power to the wealthy and corporations to subdue the population in a perpetual state of poverty with no voice in the direction and governance of this country. The response statement alluded to a “well-funded and expertly coordinated intimidation campaign” that is code for democracy that ALEC opposes, and it explains their push to suppress votes and their opposition to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that prohibits states from “imposing voting qualifications that deny or curtail the right of a U.S. citizen to vote.” The last thing ALEC aspires to is a country where every citizen has an equal voice in government because it is anathema to their dream of America controlled by corporate-driven Libertarian principles and no centralized government that is evident in their numerous policy statements on every subject from state’s rights, health care, education, prisons, commerce, and environmental regulations.

 

[sr71plt]

It's grandstanding for him to be able to say he's fulfilling campaign promises. I'm sort of glad to see it so that maybe his supporters can get a clue that what he's proposing to cut impacts what most directly was serving their survival/well-being interests--and what he's beefing up is just adding metal that will be exploded with little effect to what already is the biggest budge defense on the planet. I'd like them to get a clue about what this con man got them to pant over that screws them personally to the wall.

Those in Congress are going to reshape it to where the two versions will be total strangers.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

‘We’ve learned not to listen to anything he says’: Republican Congressional aide slams Trump’s ‘joke’ budget

16 MAR 2017

gsgs comment-
Trump twitter is a squirrrel bin?

Everything Trump has to say is a squirrel?

/end gsgs comment


An unnamed Republican Congressional leadership aide tells New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush that Congress has already become accustomed to ignoring directives and suggestions from the Trump White House, as much of the time they seem far removed from the realities of federal budgeting.

“Its a joke,” the aide said of Trump’s budget. “We’ve learned not to listen to anything he says or does. We’re on our own.”


https://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/we...-congressional-aide-slams-trumps-joke-budget/

Glenn Thrush
New York Times White House correspondent, ex-POLITICO, ex- Newsday, ex-City Limits

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/16/...n=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/...n=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=collection

*nods* Yes, yes he is writing for NY Times

 

[Carnal_Flower]

He's not doing a damn thing to help his voters

Where's the infrastructure investment? (none--its cut)

Medicaid cut

Rural and small town? Nothing

Nothing for military personnel or vets

Water and sewage repair and maintenance nope

Public schools cut cuz you know all these T voters put their kids in expensive private schools

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

IT’S FUNNY HOW THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX SEEMS TO ALWAYS COME OUT ON TOP, via Alan Rappeport and Glenn Thrush of the New York Times:

“President Trump will send a budget to Congress on Thursday that sharply reorders the nation’s priorities by spending billions of dollars on defending the southern border and bolstering the Pentagon while severely cutting funds for foreign aid, poverty programs and the environment.

The budget would fulfill Mr. Trump’s campaign promise to shock Washington by slashing the government work force — but it is virtually ensured to be discarded by Hill Republicans who see many of Mr. Trump’s cuts as too rushed, indiscriminate and reckless.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...-hour-march/TVFBtoqM2Q2VTUsvf4K4cL/story.html

Our very own Boston mayor, Marty Walsh, pronounced the Trump budget "heartless.""...harm to every neighborhood in Boston."



Big Money for Trump's friends

—The Pentagon. Trump proposes a 10 percent increase in the massive defense budget, adding $52 billion in military spending in one year top expand personnel, equipment and capability. Another $2 billion would go to nuclear weapons.

—Veterans Affairs. Up 5.9 percent. That’s an additional $4.4 billion, driven by ever-growing health care costs.

—Homeland Security. Up 6.8 percent. That’s $2.8 billion more. Most of the increase, $2.6 billion, would be to help kick-start Trump’s promised border wall. The president has repeatedly said Mexico would pay for the wall; Mexican officials are adamant that they won’t. Trump also wants an extra $1.5 billion for more immigration jails and deportations, and $314 million to hire 1,500 immigration enforcement and border patrol agents.

—The National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the maintenance and safety of the nuclear arsenal and its research labs. The agency would grow by 11.3 percent, or $1.4 billion, so that it takes up more than half the Energy Department’s budget, which would shrink overall.

—Opioid prevention and treatment: a proposed $500 million increase in the Health and Human Services Department to counter the epidemic and more money for the Justice Department to combat the problem.


Got plutocrats ?

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Attacking elites ?Trump may be shooting America in the foot!

Trump’s proposed $1.15 trillion federal budget would reduce funding for several domestic programs including $5.8 billion from the National Institutes of Health, the $32 billion national medical research agency.

(Trump's friend, Pharma profits from research,discoveries,data, new drugs and therapies produced on the government's dime.)

The National Institutes of Health ... is the sort of key driver to all sorts of discovery and has a lot to do with laying the foundation for a lot of the basic research that translates and has translated over the course of many decades into some of the most important advancements in medicine and science and biology and chemistry,” Baker said. “It is a fundamental element of what makes this country special.”

Employment in Massachusetts’ life and sciences sector exceeded 66,000 people last year. [It’s an economic] driver here and other places,” Baker said. “A lot of basic research that gets done here turns into applied research, which turns into medical devices and new drugs and all the rest.”

http://news.wgbh.org/2017/03/16/local-news/gov-baker-trumps-travel-ban-budget-bad-massachusetts

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

He's not doing a damn thing to help his voters

Where's the infrastructure investment? (none, its cut)

Infrastructure grant programs are expected to be on the chopping block in the White House budget, according to one GOP senator, despite President Trump’s promise to revitalize U.S. roads, bridges and airports.

http://thehill.com/policy/transport...ts-could-be-on-chopping-block-in-trump-budget

Medicaid cut

Kafkaesque fiscal deal cut years ago is set to gut the White House’s spending proposal.To appropriate funding as the White House wants, Trump would need to repeal or subvert sequestration. To do that, he would need to overcome the threat of a Senate filibuster. To do that, he would need to woo some number of Democrats. To do that, he would need to overhaul his budget figures. And in doing that, Trump would almost certainly lose too many Republican votes to pass his budget.

Sequestration shoots. Sequestration kills.

“Show me the budget deal that would increase defense spending, lift the budget caps, keep all Republicans, and bring in eight [Senate] Democrats,” said Todd Harrison, a military spending expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a foreign-policy think tank. “It doesn’t exist.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/donald-trump-meet-sequestration/519798/

Rural and small town? Nothing

eminent domain, private property seizure, Trump boasts about 20 lawyers Southwest, West, and West Coast take note.Say goodbye to your tiny rural airport because Trump is taking away the subsidy

Nothing for military personnel or vets

Another mirage spun by Trump.False promise.Trump promised to give money to vets.Washington Post was forced to hound Trump, to force Trump to give the vets the money.Trump planned to keep the money for himself.

Water and sewage repair and maintenance nope

losing loans, funds,and grants

Public schools cut cuz you know all these T voters put their kids in expensive private schools


1.4 billion dollars ripped away from public schools. Want a voucher for Jesus school? Block grant at state's discretion.If you are accepted at an expensive,exclusive, exceptional and very private school, will Trump help his very rich friends with children? He already is!


Reality pokes its head up out of a sea of squirrels.

“The administration’s budget isn’t going to be the budget,” said Senator Marco Rubio. “We do the budget here. The administration makes recommendations, but Congress does budgets.



Democratic senator Patrick Leahy said the White House is only proposing the massive spending cuts because they know they won’t make it through Congress. “They know they’d be a disaster for their own party if they did. It makes for a great talking point. It actually fits on a tweet,” he said.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligence...s-military-eliminates-dozens-of-programs.html

 

[Carnal_Flower]

And let's not forget cutting food for the needy:

Trump budget director: Feeding elderly and children has to end, it's not 'showing any results'

White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told the White House press corps Thursday that popular vote loser Donald Trump's budget cuts Meals on Wheels and after-school nutrition programs because those programs "aren't showing any results."

We can't do that anymore. We can't spend money on programs just because they sound good. Meals on Wheels sounds great. […] I can't defend that anymore. We cannot defend that anymore. $20 trillion in debt. We're going to spend money, we're going to spend a lot of money but we're not going to spend it on programs that show they deliver the promises we made to people.

As for the school children:

They're supposed to help kids who don't get fed at home get fed so they do better in school. Guess what? There's no evidence they're actually doing that. There's no evidence they're helping results, helping kids do better in school, which is what -- when we took your money from you to say, we're going to spend them on after-school program, we justified it by saying these kids will do better in school and get jobs. We have no proof that's helping.

Jesus would be SO PROUD

He's not doing a damn thing to help his voters

Where's the infrastructure investment? (none, its cut)

Infrastructure grant programs are expected to be on the chopping block in the White House budget, according to one GOP senator, despite President Trump’s promise to revitalize U.S. roads, bridges and airports.

http://thehill.com/policy/transport...ts-could-be-on-chopping-block-in-trump-budget

Medicaid cut

Kafkaesque fiscal deal cut years ago is set to gut the White House’s spending proposal.To appropriate funding as the White House wants, Trump would need to repeal or subvert sequestration. To do that, he would need to overcome the threat of a Senate filibuster. To do that, he would need to woo some number of Democrats. To do that, he would need to overhaul his budget figures. And in doing that, Trump would almost certainly lose too many Republican votes to pass his budget.

Sequestration shoots. Sequestration kills.

“Show me the budget deal that would increase defense spending, lift the budget caps, keep all Republicans, and bring in eight [Senate] Democrats,” said Todd Harrison, a military spending expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a foreign-policy think tank. “It doesn’t exist.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/donald-trump-meet-sequestration/519798/

Rural and small town? Nothing

eminent domain, private property seizure, Trump boasts about 20 lawyers Southwest, West, and West Coast take note.Say goodbye to your tiny rural airport because Trump is taking away the subsidy

Nothing for military personnel or vets

Another mirage spun by Trump.False promise.Trump promised to give money to vets.Washington Post was forced to hound Trump, to force Trump to give the vets the money.Trump planned to keep the money for himself.

Water and sewage repair and maintenance nope

losing loans, funds,and grants

Public schools cut cuz you know all these T voters put their kids in expensive private schools


1.4 billion dollars ripped away from public schools. Want a voucher for Jesus school? Block grant at state's discretion.If you are accepted at an expensive,exclusive, exceptional and very private school, will Trump help his very rich friends with children? He already is!


Reality pokes its head up out of a sea of squirrels.

“The administration’s budget isn’t going to be the budget,” said Senator Marco Rubio. “We do the budget here. The administration makes recommendations, but Congress does budgets.



Democratic senator Patrick Leahy said the White House is only proposing the massive spending cuts because they know they won’t make it through Congress. “They know they’d be a disaster for their own party if they did. It makes for a great talking point. It actually fits on a tweet,” he said.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligence...s-military-eliminates-dozens-of-programs.html

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

yikes

I knew that Trump was cutting funding for school children's meals.I did not know he was going after funding to feed the elderly and disabled.


Meals on Wheels is ‘not showing any results’ only if you ignore all these results


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...any-results-hes-wrong/?utm_term=.e704c68212ce


Meals on Wheels is a nonprofit group that receives funding from the federal government, state and local governments and private donors. “We serve more than 2.4 million seniors from 60 to 100+ years old each year,” the organization writes. “They are primarily older than 60 and because of physical limitations or financial reasons, have difficulty shopping for or preparing meals for themselves.”

In other words, the programs help seniors stay at home and out of costly nursing facilities. If you’re interested in keeping a lid on health-care costs, the importance of this finding can’t be overstated.

“Meals on Wheels sounds great,” Mulvaney said Thursday, but “to take that federal money and give it to the states and say, ‘Look, we want to give you money for programs that don’t work’ — I can’t defend that anymore.”

The words from many say that the Meals on Wheels keeps them fed, serves as a Well Being check, keeps them in good health, serves as a preventative to falling into ill health.Serves as a conduit to other departments that are involved in keeping the elderly and disabled in good health. Early alarm system to problems before they get worse. Contacts within the elder person's family for feedback.All for very little money.

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney was hired as a throat cutter. A low creature with a heart of ice.

https://www.usnews.com/news/nationa.../10-things-you-didnt-know-about-mick-mulvaney


Rep. Mick Mulvaney, President Donald Trump’s choice to run the White House budget office, failed to pay more than $15,000 in federal payroll taxes for a household worker(Nanny for triplets) more than a decade ago, prompting the Senate's top Democrat to issue a statement saying the lapse should disqualify his nomination.


John Michael ‘Mick’ Mulvaney was born to Michael and Kathleen Mulvaney on July 21, 1967, in Alexandria, Virginia.

Mulvaney and his wife Pam married in 1998

Mulvaney has a degree in international economics, commerce and finance from Georgetown University and a law degree from the University of North Carolina.

S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat from Denver, doesn't take Trump's budget seriously.


"This budget is not a serious proposal to help our country compete in the 21st century economy." Bennet said in a statement. "Even members of the president's own party have called this dead on arrival.

"Cutting investments in infrastructure, environmental protection, research, and affordable housing isn't putting 'America First.' Instead, this blueprint offers ideologically-driven cuts masquerading as deficit reduction."


http://m.gazette.com/colorado-react...mut-but-call-it-shock-and-awe/article/1599094


Trump Picks Mick Mulvaney, South Carolina Congressman
The New York Times

Dec 16, 2016 - Representative Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina in 2014. ... degree in international economics from Georgetown and a law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

First elected in 2010, the South Carolina Republican is one of the most conservative members of the House and has fought over spending and deficits with party leaders like former House Speaker John Boehner.


https://www.theatlantic.com/politic...ys-unpaid-taxes-trump-budget-director/513578/


Mulvaney "is a prominent member of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of around 40 conservatives that grew out of the Tea Party movement," as we reported when his nomination was announced.


http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...s-mulvaney-as-trumps-nominee-for-omb-director

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Mulvaney said the document “was assembled in part by examining excerpts from the president’s speeches and media interviews."

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox...s_a_perfect_symbol_of_his_administration.html


As they fleshed out the budget blueprint released Thursday morning by the White House, Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney said officials from the administration of President Donald Trump asked themselves: Can we ask the taxpayer to pay for this?

For a dramatic uptick in military funding, Mulvaney said, the answer was yes. For a wide array of domestic programs, it turns out, the answer was no.


Trump’s budget, which Mulvaney said was assembled in part by examining excerpts from the president’s speeches and media interviews, delivers on his campaign promise to build up the military,...

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/mick-mulvaney-trump-budget-priorities-236117

Mulaney follows Trump's habit of giving bullshit answers.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox...cutting_aid_to_the_poor_is_compassionate.html


"In the course of the cross-examination, Mulvaney managed to offer up one of the most deeply cynical justifications for yanking benefits from the needy that I have ever seen."

"You can argue at length about whether some of these programs work as intended—I certainly don't have much faith that this White House will pay attention to the best social science out there—but nobody can say with a straight face that the administration is simply looking after the interests of needy mothers. Mulvaney's rhetorical crocodile tears are plain vile."

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox...cutting_aid_to_the_poor_is_compassionate.html

Morally obscene and vile.
Yep.

That's Mulvaney.

(Thank you, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and Jordan Weissmann for helping me with my perspective.

)

 

[Carnal_Flower]

The NY Times points out this morning:

And yet, for all the pain it proposes, the budget summary is pathetically weak on substance and analysis. It deals only with discretionary spending, the roughly one-third of the budget for which Congress is supposed to appropriate money annually. Unlike the first-year, so-called skinny budgets offered by presidents going back to Ronald Reagan, it omits any figures on mandatory programs, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, as well as estimates of tax revenues, interest payments or deficits, and any explanation of the document’s underlying economic assumptions

.

I mean, the whole thing's a joke!

It's like hmmmmm I know I'll have $100 bucks in my next paycheck to do whatever I want. Should I go on a spending spree on Amazon or get some new clothes, hmmmmm

Ludicrous!!!

Not a Master Plan. Total incompetance. Do they even know what a budget is?

 

[phrodeau]

A president's budget never passes Congress. Trump knows that. The only reason he bothered to draw one up is to show where his priority is. After Breitbart, Fox, Rush and Drudge tear it apart, he'll amend his position.

Congress will of course do what Congress wants to do.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

President Donald Trump released his preliminary discretionary budget this morning and, as expected, the wrecking crew is in full effect. Washington Post reporters Kim Soffen and Denise Lu summarized it thusly: “massive cuts to the arts, science and the poor.”


The budget falls in line with the goal of “deconstruction of the administrative state,” outlined by Steve Bannon at a conservative gathering last month.

gsgs comment- *squeezes eyes shut and squinches face* Bannon was given this task? The budget, printed and released, was a deliberate trolling of liberals? So nice for them, to be able to use the taxpayer's money to play a joke. grrrrrr)

House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement Thursday he welcomed the Trump blueprint(gsgs comment- A snake has an excuse, as it was born a snake. Paul Ryan chose to become poisonous and heartless.) because it “turns the page from the last eight years” of President Barack Obama, though he did not go as far as endorsing specific, individual department reductions. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer issued a statement saying the plans would be “devastating to the middle class” and that Democrats will “emphatically” oppose the cuts and urge Republicans to oppose them as well.

http://billmoyers.com/story/daily-reads-trumps-budget-plunders-government-agencies/

 

[Carnal_Flower]

They're going to grab that reheated government issued cheeseburger out of Grandma's mouth if it's the last thing they do!!

 

[sr71plt]

I have close friends, a doctor and his wife, who are up to their necks in (admirable) charity work and who are conservative Republicans. I don't know who they voted for for president, but can easily guess. They devote a whole lot of time to delivering Meals on Wheels food, spending a lot of time interacting with the people they serve, with the Meals on Wheels people often being the only ones these folks interact with on a regular basis and would know if they were OK or stretched out on the floor. When I heard the program being so heartlessly discarded in the White House press conference yesterday, I laughed. I'd already been itching to ask the doctor and his wife how they felt about the Republican victory now.

(No, I don't think Meals on Wheels is going to be cut out of the real budget.)

 

[Carnal_Flower]

Someone on a progressive show I listen to called the budget "Performative Sociopathy" lol