TRUMP'S 2017 BUDGET PLAN

MUST BE STOPPED.

WARNING! THIS BUDGET IS

NOT SAFE FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION!

DO NOT SERVE THIS TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE!

Truth sometimes really is stranger than fiction. America already has the lowest commitment to social spending of any modern state. It is the only modern state that does not believe that its citizens have a right to safe health care. Indeed, even with Obama's health care reforms 30 million remain without coverage.

However, Trump and his Republican allies want to launch what can only be described as an all out assault on life itself with massive cuts in programs for safety of the planet and the very survival of the poor.

The Trump budget proposal also calls for the elimination of funding for 61 programs and 19 agencies, which includes the National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Legal Services Corporation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Plans for new NASA missions, climate change research, aid for low-income families and funding for commercial flights to rural airports would all be on the chopping block. The NIH will be cut by 20%.

The Trump Budget cuts crucial programs for the poor, the elderly, children and women. Some of the cruelest cuts in this budget blueprint include Meals on Wheels, heating assistance for low-income people and nutrition for pregnant and nursing women. We will point out that Meals on Wheels isn't entirely funded by the government. And has already endured cuts to its federal funding under the former Obama Administration. But cutting federal funds for the program even further is a study in stupidity and cruelty. Meals on Wheels, a program that helps volunteers in their community feed the elderly and infirm. Is trimming down such a thing really a national priority?

On that matter, White House budget chief, Mick Mulvaney, said the following things:

“Meals on Wheels sounds great,” Mulvaney said during the White House news briefing, adding that “we're not going to spend [money] on programs that cannot show that they actually deliver the promises that we’ve made to people.”

“You're only focusing on half of the equation, right? You’re focusing on recipients of the money. We’re trying to focus on both the recipients of the money and the folks who give us the money in the first place,” Mulvaney told reporters. “And I think it's fairly compassionate to go to them and say, ‘Look, we're not going to ask you for your hard-earned money anymore … unless we can guarantee to you that that money is actually going to be used in a proper function. And I think that is about as compassionate as you can get.”

“They're supposed to be educational programs, right? I mean, that’s what they’re supposed to do. They're supposed to help kids who don't get fed at home get fed so they do better in school,” Mulvaney said. “Guess what? There's no demonstrable evidence they're actually doing that. There's no demonstrable evidence they're actually helping results, helping kids do better in school… the way we justified it was, these programs are going to help these kids do better in school and get better jobs. And we can’t prove that that’s happening.”

Yet while making all these steep cuts, Trump plans to give $54 billion to an already bloated military budget in the name of "keeping America safe."

On the military budget Mick Mulvaney, said the following:

The president's vision is to add $54 billion to military spending and cut the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development by 28 percent. "There is no question this is a hard power budget, it is not a soft power budget,"

Never mind that many of these "soft power" items are things that many Americans depend upon to survive. Forget the $54 billion for "national security." If this budget is allowed to pass, it will be a real national security disaster for all Americans.

WHAT WILL BE CUT

(Image Source, The Washington Post, 3-16-17)

PRESIDENT TRUMP'S BUDGET BLUEPRINT

(Image Source: Bloomberg, 3-16-17)

THE FUNDING FOR THESE 19 AGENCIES WILL BE ELIMINATED

(Image Source: Bloomberg, 3-16-17)

THE FUNDING FOR THESE 61 PROGRAMS WILL BE ELIMINATED

Agriculture: Water and Waste Disposal Loan and Grant Program, Rural Business and Cooperative Service’s discretionary programs, McGovern-Dole International Food for Education Program

Commerce: Economic Development Administration, Minority Business Development Agency, Manufacturing Extension Partnership, NOAA Sea Grant programs

Environmental Protection Agency: Clean Power Plan, International climate change programs, Climate change research and partnership programs, Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, Chesapeake Bay Program, Energy Star, Targeted Air Shed grants, Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program, Infrastructure assistance to Alaska Native villages, Infrastructure assistance near the Mexican border.

Education: Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants, 21st Century Community Learning Centers, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, Striving Readers, Teacher Quality Partnership, Impact Aid Support Payments for Federal Property

Energy: Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, Title 17 Innovative Technology Loan Guarantee Program, Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program, Weatherization Assistance Program, State Energy Program

Health and Human Services: Fogarty International Center, Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, Community Services Block Grant

Homeland Security: NFIP Flood Hazard Mapping’s discretionary appropriation

Housing and Urban Development: Community Development Block Grant Program, HOME Investment Partnerships Program, Choice Neighborhoods, Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program, Section 4 Capacity Building for Community Development and Affordable Housing

Justice: State Criminal Alien Assistance Program

Labor: Senior Community Service Employment Program, Bureau of International Labor Affairs grant program, Occupational Safety and Health Administration training grants

NASA: Mission to land on Europa, Asteroid Redirect Mission, PACE Earth Science Mission, OCO-3 Earth Science Mission, DSCOVR Earth-viewing instruments, CLARREO Pathfinder, Office of Education

Small Business Administration: PRIME technical assistance grants, Regional Innovation Clusters, Growth Accelerators

State, Treasury, USAID: Global Climate Change Initiative, U.N. Green Climate Fund, U.N. Climate Investment Funds, Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Account, Complex Crises Fund, East-West Center

Transportation: Federal support for Amtrak’s long distance train services, Essential Air Service, TIGER discretionary grant program

Treasury: Community Development Financial Institutions Fund grants

REPORTS

President's FY 2017 Budget Blueprint Here (White House Office of Management and Budget)

Trump 2018 Budget Slashes Domestic Programs that Are Already Underfunded (The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)

President Trump’s budget for 2018 proposes cuts to non-defense discretionary (NDD) programs that would be particularly damaging

because they target many programs that policy makers have already cut significantly over the past seven years.

Trump Budget Harms Those He Promised to Help (The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)

President Trump’s new budget proposal would do severe damage to an array of investments that help many of the very people that President Trump has said would be his priority

— people who have been left behind by today’s economy or live in distressed urban or rural communities.

CHARTS

The Cost of Imperial Delusions

American defense spending is now higher than at any time since World War II

The Drop in EPA funding from 1980-2013

In 1970, the EPA was created for the purpose of protecting human health and the environment.

Now the environmental threats facing our world are even more dire than they were in 1970. Funding for the EPA is more important now than ever.

BUDGET SOLUTIONS

There is only one real solution to fix America's budget. Raising taxes.

Budget for the Future

Building a Sustainable Future: An Outline of Reform

Priorities for Increased US Taxes