Trump’s New ‘Hard Power’ Budget: What’s on the Chopping Block

The core of the column argues that the budget will never pass Congress, but it sends a message to Americans and the world where the Trump administration values reside.

The $1.1 trillion spending plan includes “big league” winners, like the US military, which gets a 10 percent boost, the Nuclear Security Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs.

“This doesn’t look like a budget Congressman Mulvaney would have supported?” “If we are ever going to balance the budget and create real economic growth, we must cut federal spending”. The White House budget released Thursday hacks the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget by 31 percent, and budgets for climate change programs across the State Department, NOAA, NASA, and the Interior Department are also slashed.

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President Donald Trump’s proposed budget could eliminate one funding source for a possible expansion of Kansas City’s streetcar line.

In North Carolina one budget cut proposed by the Trump administration would have likely serious consequences: Universities in North Carolina have gotten hundred of millions of dollars in research money over the years through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that has funded life-changing medical/scientific research. Mattis and other military leaders have long fought against cuts in diplomatic programs, as they see them as crucial to preventing conflict around the globe. Other agencies like the National Endowment for the Arts will also get the axe. “We’ve already seen that Secretary Tillerson has had a tremendous diplomatic success already on the deal he cut with Iraq”, Mulvaney said. Trump plans to do these tasks without increasing our debt.

“This a proposal that will make Americans sicker, poorer, more stressed, less educated, less financially secure, and decidedly unsafe. By May, I think it’s mid-May we’re shooting for right now, we’ll have that larger budget”.

The blueprint next goes to Congress. “Our community will be hit hard by the proposed elimination of help for households in immediate danger of being without heat and Community Development Block grants that support the production of affordable housing and the revitalization of our Main Streets”. He says the meals they deliver allow many low-income seniors to stay in their own homes, something that might now be threatened.

Finally, the proposal would reclaim $4 million allocated for the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, the independent agency responsible for coordinating the federal government’s efforts to reduce homelessness – including helping to direct resources to the 1.3 million kids who live on the streets, in shelters, in abandoned buildings, or with friends each year. That same reporter asked Mulvaney if the White House had considered the “impact on property values”. “The president of the United States, he represents the District of Columbia, Northern Virginia, and Southern Maryland, but he also represents the rest of the country”.

If we can cut enough librarians, scientists and after-school programs for kids, Trump’s budget director calculates, we can fund more weapons programs-including a renewed investment in nuclear weapons.