Trump’s Budget Would Eliminate Many Building Industry Programs

For one thing, the new president is determined to signal America’s new role on the world stage.

The Trump budget blueprint was silent on the government’s largest social welfare programs, but elimination of federal help to pay heating bills also would cut back on food stamps for about 71,000 people in CT.

We’re sending a message to Congress, and the message is very, very clear.

That’s partly because the U.S. has a much higher GDP.

So what are Trump’s priorities?

The city has a backlog of about $17 billion in needed repairs for its aging public housing, but the federal program that funds this work would be jeopardized under President Trump’s budget plan. I doubt it. Trump wants to boost defense spending by $54 billion, or about 9 percent. The budget also ends all funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

The Homeland Security Department would get another $2.8 billion (a 6.8 percent hike), with most of the increase ($2.6 billion) spent on Trump’s promised border wall. On the best of days, bus drivers still spend their workday lurching through traffic.

The draft does not specifically account for the National Science Foundation, which has a budget of $7.5 billion, though it might fall under a miscellaneous spending category that has not yet been detailed. The three programs mentioned above cost less than $1 billion combined.

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney on Wednesday told reporters the White House proposal will cut the EPA’s budget down from $8.1 billion to $5.7 billion.

Deep cuts are proposed for the Environmental Protection Agency, which oversees a wide array of regulatory programs that help ensure clean air and water. The budget asks to reduce virtually every non-defense agency, for a total of $1.2 trillion in discretionary spending, about 1.2 percent lower than the enacted 2017 budget.

These cuts, which have been rumored for awhile, seem to fly in the face of Defense Secretary James Mattis’ views.

Trump’s budget requires approval from Congress. Though Trump’s own secretary of defense warned that cutting the State Department’s budget would force him to “buy more ammunition”, the money ultimately has to come from somewhere for Trump to avoid increasing federal debt.

Conservative and Libertarian groups are mostly in consensus on the budget Trump released Thursday: It’s a good start, not ideal, but far better than any budget the previous Republican president proposed. NIH funds medical research, including about 300,000 scientists at universities. Also mentioned by name is the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program, which screens pesticides and chemicals for their potential effect on the human endocrine system. This program provides health care for people with HIV who are uninsured.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: SAMHSA will receive a budget increase of $500 million to aid in substance abuse treatment activities, expand opioid misuse prevention efforts and increase treatment and recovery service access.