Meals on Wheels. Teacher training, after-school, and summer educational programs. The National Endowment for the Arts. The Appalachian Regional Commission. The National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
All these initiatives and agencies — plus many more — face cuts or wholesale elimination under President Donald Trump’s proposed “skinny budget”, officially unveiled on March 16.
Meanwhile, the blueprint calls for increases in military spending, border and immigration enforcement, and money for charter and private schools.
Senator Bernie Sanders called the budget “morally obscene and bad economic policy”.
“At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, when 43 million Americans are living in poverty and half of older Americans have no retirement savings, we should not slash programs that senior citizens, children, and working people rely on in order to provide a massive increase in spending to the military industrial complex.”
Diane Yentel, head of the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, warned Trump’s budget “would have a devastating impact on millions of the lowest income people across the country”.
As the budget axes critical environment, public health, and science programs — including with a 31%t cut to the EPA — it “feeds the fossil fuel industry”, Oil Change International policy director Janet Redman said on March 16, pointing to the continuation of huge subsidies for oil, gas, and coal companies.
Politico reported: “As proposed, the Trump budget almost certainly will not pass Congress. Too many lawmakers, including many Republicans, have declared it dead on arrival.
“But the document nonetheless represents a crucial road map for a president who is new to government, and who has at least a full term to pursue his goals.”
[Abridged from Common Dreams.]