"An American Budget?" Sounds dull. "The Fountainhead" would be much more indicative of the society the President is seeking to create, which is decidedly not American.
14
Trump's budget is yet another Trump for Trump gangster exercise. He will make millions - legally this time- from infrastructure , military equipment, wall, etc etc. When the US economy tanks he will declare bankruptcy and get reimbursement from the US govt. Always winning; the US always losing.
7
The only thing that's surprising here is that people are surprised.
The GOP has been, since the 1930s, intent on undoing the entirety of the New Deal, the Great Society programs, and, sure, the poor, compromised-till-meaningless ACA. The Gilded Age was, to Republicans, exactly what the U.S. should be: a small cadre of the ultra-rich, owning everything, and the rest of the country, uneducated serfs who are born in poverty, work as soon as they can, and, when unable to work, die quickly. This goal has not changed; it had to be kept somewhat quiet/disguised for the forties, fifties, and sixties; but in the mid-seventies things started to change. Then Reagan, the GOP's saint, was the first blatant mover. The younger Bush did his part. The Congressional Republicans have never NOT been in this camp, and they've been ably assisted by the fundamentalist wing of Christianity, from "Godless Communism" garbage to "school choice" and including all the social eighteenth century ideas. Now the goal is being reached, with the help of a basically stupid but cunning, narcissistic con-artist, who is taking advantage of the ignorance of the American public, and making his own pile of money off the scheme. We never needed any external enemies.
26
Anyone who believed that Trump would do anything to benefit the average American worker (including those stupid enough to vote for him) just fell off the turnip truck.
16
What did you expect in the guy who brought us the art of the deal? The art here is to propose something so preposterous that any concessions looks like victories.
By now even the patriotic or non-selfish/non-greedy Trump supporter must be in tune with his core values: himself and his wealth & power. That’s it.
Either you stand for these values yourself or you stand for the betterment of the United States of America, the Constitution, and our Declaration of Independence. When Trump placed his hands on the Bible and swore allegiance he was just lying!
9
Trump and his cohorts just prove that money can not buy you happiness. Only the most vile and cruel people would serve up this budgetary proposal. Truly cold and nasty people.
17
Well, of course we need to increase the military budget. How else can we afford the parades?
16
And who is surprised? Nasty people create nasty things, including budgets
13
The numbers tell a cruel and vindictive story. More than 100 million Americans would be hurt by Medicare and Medicaid cuts. On the order of thousands of dollars per person per year. The repeal of the ACA would take away insurance coverage and health care from 30 million Americans. It would also take them away from at least that many older Americans. The 38 million Americans using food stamps would receive only half of what they presently get. There is little they would not do to get their tax cuts for the rich. Their principles are clear. The rich can do and have whatever they want, while the rest of us will struggle merely to survive.
13
I just love it when the EB works up a large deposit of foam around their dentures, don’t you?
This isn't "Trump's" budget any more than any of the policy decisions coming out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Trump is nothing but a bullhorn. We still don't really know whose voice he amplifies, or why that voice has such power over Trump. As long as The Times keeps snapping at trump like a trout at a lure, we won't know.
5
I would think in the age of “fake news” that your Editorial Board would check its facts. Bear in mind that I’m not a supporter of Donald Trump. Your fundamental argument about the Trump budget being a large transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich is factually wrong. The top 10% of taxpayers pay most of the federal income taxes, while the bottom 40% pay no federal income taxes. Further, the trillions of dollars spent on the welfare state have produced minimal gains for the poor. The only reason the poverty rate has not increased is the result of more social spending. There need to be fresh ideas on helping the less fortunate and not more of the same.
3
I think those that benefit rom Medicaid and Medicare would beg to differ with regard to how the programs have helped them.
Is this a new tactic by the Trumpettes? "I'm not a supporter of Donald Trump, but let me defend him anyway." Brilliantly played, comrade, brilliantly played.
20
Messrs O'Connell and Schomesky, My Medicare and Drug Plan costs me personally $5,478 a year and i resent being lumped together with Medicaid which costs nothing and provides benefits that Medicare patients do not get. I love the program but pay far more for my premiums than I receive back.
10
What a waste of paper and trees. PDF would've been fine for this disposable document.
9
I cannot disagree with the NYT Editorial Board. Less income and more spending -- this is NOT the American way. The republicans backing trump should be ashamed. trump should be ashamed, but, then, again, he has no shame.
22
A mean spirited and nasty budget indeed. What else would you expect from these radical Republicans and from Trump who wants to be America's Putin? And, make no mistake, this budget contains radical ideas that should never see the light of day in a country such as the United States. Punish the poor, reward the rich.
14
now I feel like a German watching the rise of Hitler in 1933 despite loathing the man
20
Trump's policies are essentially those of the millionaire dominated Republican Congress of the gilded age. The effects of the tax cuts are not to grow the economy but to allow the wealthy and big corporation to retain their money rather than contribute it to the maintenance of the country's government and allowing the democratic institutions to determine how it is used. Basically, the rich are removing their support so that they can use the money as they wish. It means far more of the new wealth created will be beyond the control of the country to use for the common good. We may retain a democratic government but we will have to go on our hands and knees to beg the wealthy and giant corporations for the means to support it, and that will effectively convert our government into one controlled by plutocrats.
6
We can curse and rage and howl at Trump and bemoan the treacherous con game that Trump and his lackeys are playing on the voters who supported him. But the only thing that will really make any difference is to VOTE these scurrilous Republicans out of office in November.
13
President Donald Trump's plan does not seem to care about poor, struggling Americans who are trying their best on succeeding in living the American dream. It does not make sense for him to cut money to the department of transportation yet he wants to fix American roads and bridges. "Lets make America great again" does not seem to me that he's making America great again for the poor, but for the rich.
6
Calling Trump supporters "deplorable" pales in comparison to any assertion that they actually believed he would be a champion for common people or that he has any genuine respect for them. Trump instantly turns on anyone who does not demonstrate TOTAL subservience, be they combat veterans, Gold Star families, political rivals, political allies, national allies, the press or even the Pope. Side note: We all remember Trump trying to claim moral superiority on the Pope by calling him "disgraceful" and a "pawn" of the Mexican government, right? (goo.gl/Nr2asu)
The point is that Trump clearly puts his own interests above ALL others. Any Trump supporter can see that. So putting aside those who support Trump out of sheer spite for their enemies, the only reason anyone would support Trump is if they convinced themselves that their interests were aligned with his own.
Unfortunately for them, beyond a mutual hatred of liberals, their interests are usually in conflict. Trump barely conceals efforts to profit off of the presidency and he will profit even more off of the recent tax cuts. That's "Mission Accomplished" in his mind. But the jig is up regarding Trump's magical control over the markets and wages. He's now asking the nation to fund a wall he said would be free and is seeing what he can get away with regarding their social security, medicare and other services. Think the temporary middle-class tax cuts or one-time bonuses will make up the difference?
16
You believed Trump's speeches? Cue the laugh track please.
9
American? You mean like Pinochet in South America?
President Trump was elected in 2016 with 48% of the popular votes. Most of these votes came from maybe 35% of the people in the country who love his tribal appeals and will probably vote for him again in 2020 no matter what he does. So when amazingly his approval rating still hovers between 35% and 40% that's due to the loyalty of this group.
Except to get to his 48% he also needed the votes of about another 13% of the people in the country; this group acted as his "swing vote," and the same group will likely decide the 2020 election. And who are these people? They are largely what is called the "disaffected middle class," people who have fared poorly in the economy in recent years and were hoping President Trump might be their savior. Although he was a big blowhard, what made this work was that unlike the Democrats he at least talked about the issues important to this group, and they placed their trust in him.
We’re now a year into President Trump's term, and it's already clear that he's not going to do anything for this group, and his appeals to them can be added to his long list of lies. But here are the two big IQ tests. First, will this group be smart enough to see how they've been had and act in their own self-interest in 2020? And, will the Democrats be smart enough to see how they dropped the ball in 2016 and next time be smart enough to make an effective appeal to this group that they should have been more loyal to?
2
Trump used debt-financing for his businesses. Let someone else pay, which they did each time one declared bankruptcy. This is his modus operandi and he's bringing it to the government. Problem is, if the government goes bankrupt the population can't walk away from it. Trump can and will, as he'd be out of office by the time it'd happen.
Congress must put a stop to this irresponsible and reprehensible tactic.
4
Yet another stark report of the malignant presidency of Donald Trump.
In equally stark and equally objective terms, Trump is a crude, morally decrepit person; an anti-intellectual buffoon; an incompetent political strategist, tactician, and promoter; a defiant ethics violator; and a perpetrator of crimes against the state, women, his wives, and numerous private individuals. We are reminded of this daily.
Yet our system of laws and politics provides numerous ways to keep Trump in office, and we are forced to endure his destructive initiatives.
When will elected officials start to demand a change in the SYSTEM?? Most voters don't want Trump and didn't want him in the first place. We, the voters, need a way to get rid of him NOW, not 2020. That's way too late.
3
It's relatively easy for a con man like Trump to sucker the poor and uneducated into giving him their vote.
5
Trump had 144 vacancies at his 3 properties and hired ONE worker from the United States and the rest went to H2B visa foreign workers. Lies, Lies, Lies about hiring American.
7
Yes but everyone who loses their home will see an extra $1.50 in their paycheck.
8
"What happened to all that talk about sticking up for working people?"
Nothing happened. It was all a con job by the master of con.
7
Nasty doesn't even begin to describe Trump's budget proposal. Despicable, heartless, mean-spirited, reprehensible, hateful...there must be a thousand negative adjectives that would apply. And, given the way the proposal directly contradicts so many of Trump's campaign promises about helping those who have been struggling in our economy, perhaps HYPOCRITICAL would be the most accurate description of all.
2
The enduring question on Republican presidential budget proposals continues to be military spending. Why do we need to increase funding for our armed forces during a period of (more or less) peacetime? It has become standard practice by the GOP to increase the military budget, regardless of whether we need it or not. I'm not sure they even take a moment to consider it anymore; they just toss it in because that's what they always do and, hey, got to give those military contractors a payraise.
Worse, our State Department, which should be guiding foreign policy and defining clear goals for the military to carry out, is largely AWOL. There is no plan in Afghanistan, or Iraq, or Syria - other than to pour money into a permanent military occupation there. There is no plan for North Korea, other than pouring money into military exercises in/around the Korean peninsula. There is no plan to rekindle trust between the US, Russia, and China. Rather, Trump prefers to dump a bunch of cash into outmatching them with better nukes which *totally* won't lead to an arms race.
In other words, our military missions around the world are in complete disarray. The men are still standing in the field, but the generals have departed for Mar-A-Lago to play golf and American taxpayers are left to pick up the ever-increasing tab.
5
"What happened to all that talk about sticking up for working people?"
I think people misunderstood the preposition. It was not UP. It is TO.
7
Everyone just needs to show up at the polls this fall and put a Democratic majority in Congress. Then we can impeach the dope.
8
This article requires a bit of a dictionary.
When Progressive-Socialists like Barack Obama cut something like, say, Medicare, the verb used must be ''reduced.'' It is okay for the Left to reduce things, especially as they are hacking away wildly at something those nasty old patriots LIKE, such as military spending.
However, whenever a non-progressive has the gaucherie to lower a spending number, the verb used must be ''slashed.'' Slashers start out already smeared and observant progressive hate-trainees begin to sneer at once.
Were the NY Times even a shadow of the newspaper it used to be, definition updates would not be necessary. Sadly, the Times hasn't practiced ethical journalism or fair reporting in at least a generation.
And so begins the other half of 'Starve The Beast'.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast
"On Monday, President Trump proposed a budget that would slash spending on Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, transportation and other essential government services, all while increasing the federal deficit."
Entirely predictable. An old disease that's back to wreck the future some more. Psychopathic politics.
10
While Trump proposes to destroy the lives of his poor supporters, his budget is mentioned nowhere on the Fox "news" website. Instead, readers are greeted with a photo of Hillary Clinton smiling, and a story implying her involvement in the death of Gemmel Moore. Untimately, Trump will visit his supporters as a "thief in the night." Their medicaid and food stamps will be cancelled, they will be served with eviction notices, and there will be no more social security checks in the mail.
8
People wanted jobs. Trump promised jobs. Not sure he really has anything to do with delivering jobs, but we do have low employment numbers. While job pay has arguably not gone up for a number of industries/jobs, that's what people wanted. They also wanted NO CUTs to Medicare or social security. Most do not consider those 2 as entitlements, even though the Fed and NYTimes may.
I do believe we need fewer on the government dole. Realize that now is not the time; many are still out of work and true inflation has not caught up with salaries/hourly pay - government needs to calculate inflation correctly for that to happen, and companies need to hire people vs. contract with them. All of that must start before we wean people off of government monies.
2
It has often been said that a budget is, fundamentally, a moral document that expresses our core values, attitudes, beliefs, and norms; in short, it is a reflection of our core culture. If that is so, with this budget we are decidedly not following the bend of the arc of justice of which MLK so eloquently spoke.
10
A budget is to tell make sure an entity handles its finance better and eliminate waste. For a country, it is tell the bureaucrats the should make the best use of their appropriated money to benefit their constituents most. If you need a moral sermon, attend a church.
Trump proposes what “amount[s] to one of the largest transfers of wealth from the poor to the rich in generations,” but his supporters cheer. Why? Before they were duped by Trump, they were groomed by the deep-state-Benghazi!-pizza-parlor-basement-Vince-Foster-birther-war-on-Christmas memes. It’s an inside job perpetrated by billionaire media moguls aided and abetted by pretend newscasters “and friends.”
The good news is that those who have been hurt by economic forces beyond their control and earlier GOP-led wealth transfers, will soon be joined by many other citizens. It’s a race to the bottom, but a race nonetheless — just made for reality TV.
28
The country may have just one more chance. If the people do not turn out in sufficient numbers and vote Democrats into the House and Senate then we may be looking at another American Revolution. When the French in 1789 had been taxed, starved, and impoverished by the equivalent of their one percent the result was quite bloody - mainly for that one percent. People really can only be pushed so far.
27
Correct. Forget “sufficient numbers,” though. We should aim to have each and every eligible citizen cast his or her vote in the midterms and in 2020. Our civic duty is the *least* we can do, regardless of our politics or preferred candidates.
1
Yeah, right!
1
Trump's plan wasn't "sticking up FOR working people" . It was just plain old "sticking up working people."
23
Harvard published a study after changes in Welfare in 1996 (Clinton's Democratic Presidency) where immigrants were denied benefits. States variously opted to replace, or not, these benefits for immigrants.
Poverty actually went down with immigrants in the States that did not replace the benefits as the immigrant population opted to increase their availability for work.
Assuming that "benefits" equates with "compassion" or "results," disagrees with least small study of reality. I can guess the families who have employed members are "happier" than those on Welfare.
1
Has anyone else noticed the Trumpian touch on the PRESENTATION of this and the 2018 budget proposal he put forth?
Under previous, mostly competent, Presidents, the document had a pretty standard, staid cover simply identifying it as the budget of the US government.
Leave it to Mr. Gaudy Gold Plated Everything to attempt to cover for the emptiness INSIDE the document by adding a cover with "branding words" and iconography that suggests this is a book that is supposed to be sold.
Oh for the day when we again have a competent public servant in the Oval Office.
33
Hopefully we live long enough to see that happen.
1
Trump's budget is an extreme-right document which, together with the recent tax cut, reveals the strategy of "bleeding the beast": balloon the deficit to the point where the government has to stop spending on everything except the military. All "entitlements" are under threat, along with any support for culture (let's not overlook the budget's proposals to kill the NEH and NEA).
16
There is nothing "extreme right" about adding one trillion dollars to the deficit in ONE year, more than the accumulated deficit in the first 200 years.
We misunderstood - He meant sticking it to working class people. We will enjoy the parades and our new Russian comrades and all the perks that the masses get under the New Make America Great Constitution.
14
Trump supporters believe it only will happen to other people, who don't deserve our support, not to them. Give them a good parade with lots of stars and stripes this summer. That's much more important than feeding the poor and funding schools, roads, and bridges. As for health care, it's Obama's fault that it is failing, don't you know? If you don't have health care, then you aren't really working hard enough and you don't deserve it.
40
I could not have phrased this better!
9
What the editor is calling a 'Nasty Budget' appears to have the intent to increase employment opportunities for the many Americans seeking construction jobs!
Really, how so?
3
with what money? States can't afford the cost.
2
Obama proposes a $4.1 trillion budget, Trump proposes $4.4 trillion, and he is the devil?
1
Trump's increase is for the military not domestic programs, which he wants to cut dramatically.
4
The 'devil' is in the detail, sweetie, not the bottom line.
5
It all depends on (a) what you plan to spend the money on, (b) the economic timing and (c) whether there is a sufficient revenue stream to cover the expenses. But, yes, the Fox News headline will be the shallow one you propose.
3
It appears that Congress must start considering the most drastic solutions to this reign of terror.
12
Why is anyone surprised? Trump and his ilk believe government exists to make life better for people like him - people who deserve as much money as they can possibly amass. If the rest of us were smart or talented, we too would be billionaires.
14
President Trump’s budget cuts 7.1 per cent of Medicare’s current costs, promising to eliminate “wasteful treatment.” One person’s “waste” is another’s life. Recognizing that, under the new Congressional tax bill, private insurance companies (who are issuing more and more denials under the rubric of unnecessary procedures), Governor Cuomo wants to impose a 14 percent surcharge on New York’s private insurance industry because of the “windfall profits” they will reap under the new federal tax law which reduces corporate tax rates from 35 to 21 per cent.
Why not circumvent both Trump cuts and private insurance windfalls and adopt the New York Health Act (A4738, S 4840) as a model for what can be done nationally? Under its provisions, New Yorkers will be covered for preventive and specialty care, hospitalization, mental health, reproductive health, dental, vision, hearing, medical supplies and prescription drugs.
Patients choose their own doctors and have no network constraints and no co-pays. Financed by a progressive payroll tax (and unearned income), it will make healthcare cheaper for 98 % of New Yorkers and avoid what the Times calls a “nasty” budget even as it guarantees New Yorkers healthcare as a human right.
7
Just hope you don't get what you wish for. New York State does not have a border wall.
Let's see -
A White House staff greatly occupied and influenced by former generals produces a budget increase of over 14 per cent in the Defense Department.
Now there's a shocker!!
This President (albeit, he is not alone) does not understand the impact of this budget on the country he has been elected to serve. His promises to the "forgotten" ring hollow, just as his contempt for established practices, protocols, traditions, the press and anything else he doesn't truly understand produces a stain on this country which may prove to be permanent.
The true test of a simple mind is when a person attempts to distill a complex problem (healthcare, immigration, taxes) into sound bites, tweets and simplistic solutions. This is what we have today in the White House.
10
Why does anyone who isn't in the 1% vote Republican? (When I was a kid in South Carolina, my uncle told my mother she had to vote GOP because the Democrats wanted to desegregate the schools; she's still proud to say that she never took his advice.) Vote Republican and risk losing your Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, health insurance? See the national parks threatened by oil wells and frackers? Watch neighbors being hauled away by men in uniform, to be deported? Settle for dirty water, smoggy air, food produced under unsavory and even dangerous conditions? Allow banks to go wild and crash the economy again? Republicans don't care, as long as they make a profit and can afford the best for themselves. And now they don't care that the Russians are helping them to accomplish their goal of dismantling our government. The more Trump talks about national security, the broader he spreads national insecurity. Yet some people still can't see it.
37
As Trumps touts the virtues of his wall, he proposes an infrastructure plan that reminds me of Mexico's toll roads, where the rich can travel expensive toll roads and the poor are relegated to windy, narrow two-lane roads. No wall necessary; unwittingly we're becoming like Mexico, and the roads are an apt metaphor of a widening economic chasm between classes.
25
This is just as we (those who early on and easily recognized that DT is an unapologetic and inveterate liar) expected. We knew what was coming because we are cognizant of not only DTs self-serving lies, but of the historical trends of Republican governance. I do feel sorry for those poor people who will be hurt most by this attack on entitlements, even those who were duped by DT and the GOP and who still cannot see the axe that is heading for their collective necks.
30
sadly many of those poor people voted them in. People need to do their homework - not rely on social media to get info. Trump's track record, as well as the GOP was visible to all those who looked. Unfortunately, the dems are not much better - Congress has sold out and has no true allegiance to the American people.
6
Linda,
That's the kind of thinking that will guarantee the plutocrats a long and happy reign.
2
*See "The Art of the Deal" Trump/Schwartz 1987.
5
He tells us in the book "Promise more, Promise more" Which we all know means LIE. LIE!! and FOLK-"THE FORGOTTEN ONES," that Trump was going to rescue, believed and still believe!
9
I've always wanted to believe there is some good in all people, so it's hard for me to grasp the wanton cruelty of this administration. This is as Manichean as it gets.
25
Why are so many people in red states seemingly immune to understanding this basic truth about the bald hypocrisy of Trump and the GOP? Why? Why do they not understand that voting for these wretches virtually guarantees greater misery for themselves and their families? It beggars belief.
25
the powerful got rid of fairness doctrine and now we have people who believe Koch brothers lies and propaganda. these people are so misinformed they would fight and die for vile trump
8
The results and effects of electing a fool, con man, authoritarian, and pathological liar (along with his minions, enablers and henchmen) underscore the fact every single day that a very large swath of Americans are simply uneducated, ignorant, duped or brainwashed. The folks who put him there or did (do) nothing to actively oppose him bear the historical burden of embarrassment, shame, and ridicule. It's hard to have any sympathy for people who help lead a country to ruin.
26
The sooner we can remove Trump from office, the better will be the chance for world peace. Our way of living is in clear and present danger. Trump is evilly incompetent. Let's hope Dems take back the Congress and proceed to impeach immediately.
16
Beware, removing Trump will bring Pence and he is vitriol. Learn more about his ways in the State of Indiana when he was Governor!
13
The only reason I haven't joined the impeachment chorus is that Pence could be even worse--with a more reasonable demeanor, making him more effective in follolwing the Republican agenda.
4
February 13, 2018
Nasty will yield Nasty and then the reality politics hits those that cause sufferings and disasters - all in name of reality government accountability. So thanks for the heads up on the fate of our capitalist system that has its excesses and its ways to stress competing interest for all in the American families that may or may not come to terms with the election mapping districts that should be on every app and online and real time monitoring those that sign and serve the condition that is administered in the name of politics. So the distress is vertical and horizontal and wide as the nation from left to right - but all remains for us to know, as in today's Editorial as a beacon of hope for reality living with truth to take on those that dare to soil the common good for making America America the land of the free to know how to take corrective voting and by seeking politicians that do not double speak or worst.....
jja Manhattan. N.Y.
5
Someone posted:
Yes, resources are finite. So what possible sense did it make to drain the treasury with a huge tax cut for the people who need it least?
Because stealing is not right no matter how much you want others' money.
The top 1% of taxpayers pay ~40% of all federal income taxes. The top 10% of taxpayers pay ~70%
https://www.ntu.org/foundation/page/who-pays-income-taxes/
2
Let's not forget Trump has given himself a big tax cut as well. Besides, he's had a lot of practice bilking people of their money before he came into office.
6
60% of the recent Tax Giveaway to the Wealthy goes the TOP 1% of Taxpayers. According to you they only pay 40% of Federal Taxes so they got a 50% bonus.
1
Those poor widdle rich boys pouting about paying taxes!! Disgusting!
If the oligarchs and their unctious courtiers, the millionaire lawyers and lobbiests, want to pay less taxes than they should stop hoarding money and stop destroying the pension funds that should have gone to the millions of us that used to earn middle-class wages.
As a Christian Communist, I recommend that you read and meditate on the Book of James KJV, chapter 5:
" Woe unto you, rich man. Weep and wail for the misery that shall come upon you... The cries of the laborers in your fields- of whose wages you have kept back by fraud- their cries have reached the ear of the Lord of Shabboth. He shall not be denied."
1
mean-spirited and short sighted and ultimately will cause a lot of suffering for his deluded followers. How NOT to make America great again.
7
Why, NYTimes editors, do you fail to see, or avoid speaking of it for some strategic reason, that the Republicans, now the party of Trump, have no interest as a governing party in the humane goal of helping the average man: the middle-class, the working class, or the poor, some of whom don't or can't work?
Do you realize this is another, worse Gilded Age or not? Maybe you are striving for a compromise so you speak softly and avoid the cold, hard truth -- a diplomatic approach. Some say you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, but not if the flies have all the honey they can eat elsewhere.
We're in a cold economic war: the Have-Too-Much vs. the Barely-Getting-By-and-Sinking-Fast group, which some say is 99% of Americans.
Time for talk is over. We know how the cow ate the corn. Either they win, and we lose just about everything, or we take the reins of power back and rebalance this country. This political sea change can, and should, be done peacefully at the ballot box; but with gerrymandering, voter repression, Russian interference, etc., we have additional problems, of course.
Please, NYTimes editors, drop the exhausted diplomacy. Tell it like it -- we're in a class struggle -- and disseminate actionable ideas. Let's get off Square One. Please descend from your debater's podium and help move us forward; you don't need to further analyze and describe our situation: We know that. We need battle plans, workable, effective political actions that can save us.
20
I am 76 and may not live to see another administration in the White House. How terribly SAD. The "latest" brilliant idea is deliver government boxes of food and slash food stamp $ in half. Now people will be told what to eat..have to eat canned goods instead of fresh produce ..because they won't have the $ to buy it anymore! The boxes will be stolen from intended recipients.Totally insane!
19
From what I have been reading about the pending new Budget (for what -two years?) that will put the medical-health-pharmaceutical problem on the USER, (not good news for those of us on Medicare or Medicaid they say?) and it also indicates that Mr. Trump (if he is still around?) will instigate and lead us into more Wars, to help out his buddy Putin? in the mid-East? Against China?
To have a trillion dollar Budget is idiotic when you think of all the money we will need to borrow so that our Great Great Grand kids will still be paying for it in 2034 or later? That may sound in jest but it will no doubt end in a pretty little mess and guess who will not be around to be criticized for it-right Mr. D.J. Trump for openers.
Our interest rates will climb like when Jimmy Carter was the President, which will only Bless the Rich and their hanger-ons. I remember those days when I received 18% interest for some IRA's, (too early for 401Ks and the other K's to follow).
Like S. Bannon exclaimed at the beginning of Trump's reign, "You ain't seen nothing yet folks! We've got a whole bunch of changes coming."
He made have been right.
5
Trump is all hat and no cattle. This is what happens when you elect an accomplished con man as your president. He's only concerned with placating the hard, right wing Republicans in Congress who support him.
The language he uses is to con the middle class people who voted for him.
Language, to a person with no character, means nothing.
The only things that count are those that can be legally enforceable: contracts, laws, and signed agreements.
The words are for the poor. The rest of us see through the most transparent politician in history.
The laws are for the rich who support him, at the expense of the poor. who are too naive to see it.
7
Give the man some credit. At least you know exactly where he stands. At least Trump's budget does not have the magic asterisk in Paul Ryan's budget that pretended to eliminate the deficit incurred by cutting off social services.
5
Correction that was supposed to say the deficit incurred by lowering taxes. Even eliminating all social services would not balance this budget.
2
Huckabee just lied from the podium and said this ‘budget’ reduces the National Debt by $7 Trillion.
2
Hardly; we do not know where he stands, or where he stood, or - where he might decide to stand this evening, overnight, at breakfast tomorrow, or noon, or whenever; the only constant things about him are ignorance, especially of the Constitution, deception, vanity, delusions of grandeur, nepotism, racism, sexism - I could go on but you all can fill in more words like these; immoral for one.
So ss in Florida, I disagree with your opinion that we know exactly where he stands...
He is only for himself and his family and seeks to enrich himself and them, while craving worship and demanding loyalty from those who work for him or who have to work with him.
He should watch his drinking cup....
1
Excellent editorial, delineating the duplicitous, mean-spirited nature of our President and his minions. I think it may also be (more) evidence that Mr. Trump really has no idea of what he is doing. Mr. Mulvaney and his pals put one over on Trump with this budget, and sadly I don’t think that was hard to do. If Mr. Trump had not been so uninformed and, hence, so easily duped, he would have realized how simple it would be to identify his failed promises in an editorial like this one. It’s now clear (if it wasn’t some time ago) that Mr. Trump’s ego far exceeds his intelligence. I see no hope for this administration, but I do hope the NYT continues its good work.
18
To be honest, I can't really say that I have any particular objections to this 'nasty' budget - as long as it affects only those who voted for Trump; even more will I support it if it only affects those who still ardently and blindly support him. Alas, that won't be the case as the boat sinks with everyone in it . . .
9
I can certainly understand your feelings here. I too have been dismayed by people who vote against their own self interests and then survive due to programs enacted by Democrats. But this budget hurts all of us, particularly when it comes to diplomacy and infrastructure. We can’t give up the fight.
4
I hope the working and middle class voters who swallowed Trump's snake oil pitch wake up and realize how badly they were swindled. But it will probably take them losing their Medicaid, Medicare, SS, and health insurance plans to even begin to question their own ignorance for not comparing Trump's words with his track record. Denial is one of the most powerful psychological defense mechanisms humans have.
18
I am always disturbed by the American use of the word "entitlement" to refer to help given to those less fortunate. There are endless reports with research that show that the vast majority of those who receive help from government are the working poor, and that money spent on helping people live healthier lives with a better standard of living results in greater prosperity for the entire population. In such a wealthy nation, how can people begrudge fellow citizens adequate food, housing and a fair wage for hard work done well? How can those with plenty willfully deny the sick, the disadvantaged and those unable to work, a basic minimum standard of living, even those who became unable to work by being broken or disabled through military service? How can helping a hungry child be an "entitlement"? This is especially baffling in a country that frequently self-identifies itself as "Christian"? Canada has many problems and much injustice but I like to think that we have at least learned to distinguish between entitlement and basic human rights. I hope some day we can all fully live up to that distinction.
16
Can Americans name one thing the USA gives to its citizens for free? I can list a whole lot of things I get for being Australian. From voting to health care to aged pensions. What do you get for being an American, social safety nets, free education, health care? Do they live in some sort of hope things will get better?
5
That this man has the gall to propose these cuts after handing out billions in tax cuts to the wealthiest individuals and corporations just once again demonstrates his lack of knowledge, morals, ethics and concern for Americans.
16
Now will those who have believed otherwise, finally admit that (Trump has proven, once and for all), government cannot be run like a business?
4
Trump's budget may seem awful to people who aren't Republicans. But don't the Republicans love it? If implemented the budget would the entire country would look like Oklahoma or Kansas today-- a Republican paradise.
6
Trump does not stick up for ordinary people. He has a history of sticking it TO people.
5
Is it any solace to know that this budget is DOA and the Republican Congress, fearful of election backlash, will temper the draconian cuts proposed by OMB Director Mulvaney and his ilk? I think not because though the Trump administration is in disarray and foundering, his mindset is not. It's far from a democracy when those without have little influence on how their lives are affected by those with. The few profess benefit for the many and it's a sham. There is no collective goodwill, there is only personal enrichment and avoidance of civility and common purpose. Service for mankind is parentless.
So, where to go with this budget monstrosity? People not bombs, reason not blame, love not hate, and diplomacy not threats should light the pages of our nation's budget outlays. If we connect to the real needs of our nation and not our outlandish fears, we will be the better for it.
So may it be.
3
This budget appears set in a direction that doomed the Soviet Union- Spending more and more on defense to prop up a shell while hollowing out the core. Education and achievements in scientific research took this country to the peak of its power. Not prioritizing education will hasten the downfall.
48
Speaking of which, that $80 billion extra for the War Dept is a bit more than Russia's total military spending.
Yet we are being kept under our beds in fear of Russian meddling in our cherished elections, ignoring all the gerrymandering, voter suppression, voter purges, billions in bribes to our congress critters from our billionaires and so on.
6
It's been clear from the 1980s that Trump is incapable of caring about anybody but Trump. Anyone who thought it would be different when he became president wasn't paying attention to history.
65
So, the only roads likely to be built will be toll roads. Great, just what we need, more tolls. And who will be stuck using those roads and paying those tolls? Not the 1%. They'll just fly right over them in their tax-deductible private jets.
60
It has been obvious since the transition of administrations that Trump will not keep any of his promises to his working class base. The fat cats and kleptocrats he has appointed to office were never going to do anything to protect government programs. This is a looting operation!
Having always voted against my interests so these programs could be funded, I have about given up on federal solutions. The American voting public is just too ill informed to deserve the government help they have inherited from their parents. Shiny tax cuts worth a couple of hundred per year are the inducement to support policies that will lead to less education funding, less income security, less health security, more bloated military spending.
The best I can hope for now is that the federal government will shrink and we can demand bigger tax cuts so our states can pick up the ball. The Trump states will be the biggest losers if that happens because those states will NOT pick up the ball. Tough Luck!
29
Wasn't there a movie "never give the suckers n even break?" Seems appropriate. Only the most foolish could have believed any of Trump's promises, his whole career has been a scam. We knew he was a serial groper, a liar, a racist, he got elected anyway. I can't feel sorry for the suckers fell for it, or the no-difference-duopoly scammers who undermined Clinton for some pipedream, they deserve the consequences they helped unleash.
21
I don't think Trump won without help.
1
Except that what this administration is doing affects us all!
1
Trump went bankrupt several times, and now he's dragging us with him. This time, his daddy won't send lawyers to bail us out. Why isn't anyone talking about this?
32
What arrogance this budget -- not even an excuse from Mulvaney or a Tweet from POTUS to drown out the sound of the shredding safety net.
19
Perhaps this will contribute to economic conditions where the country can bring back the nice $1000 paper gold certificates. President Cleveland is currently on the $1000 gold certificate, but if these are ever reissued I suppose the president on the certificate could be another president like President Obama or...another president. It might not be a bad idea provided there was no fixed peg to gold.
2
Paraphrased comment in Senate Intelligence Committee hearing today: the amount Russia spent on cyberwarfare to disrupt our 2016 elections is millions of dollars less than the cost of U.S. fighter jet.
Trump's budget reflects the values of his budget director, Mulvaney. Full Stop. There's no indication Trump was consulted or that he cared what the end product was. The size of the document, printed out, ensures that Trump didn't even bother to read it.
As far as what he said on the campaign, where's the evidence he remembers what he said three minutes ago, much less months ago. He has no long-term memory or short-term memory. That's what allows him to lie without regret/guilt or possibly even knowledge that he's lied.
30
I support this budget, but wish it cut even more. It wasn't long ago when we Republicans argued to shut down the Dept of Education and return that role to where it properly belongs, at the state and local level. Entitlement spending has gotten completely out of hand and is totally unsustainable. Food stamps should be an emergency time limited measure, not a way of life. Same with subsidized housing. That we have a whole class of people living on the government is insane. As a high earner who pays a fortune in tax every year, I know I'd love to stop funding a lot of this. The recent tax cuts were okay, but from my perspective barely a start. That anyone is asked to spending more than 10-15% of income in taxes is theft and wrong.
2
Perhaps if companies would pay a living wage, food stamps and subsidized housing would be unnecessary. Yes, we have a whole class of people living on the government. They're called corporations. And I would certainly "love to stop funding a lot of this."
56
Cyber warfare is the future but Trump is raising billions to pay for conventional weapons and paying for it by cutting Meals on Wheels which feed several million military veterans a day. Trump lives in the past and his budget shows he thinks he can fight computer crime with a new aircraft carrier.
10
DRS:
Welcome to the arena. Your position is further right than mine, but perhaps more honest for that. We need to focus our resources on things that support getting Americans off doles and in protecting the interests of our shared posterity, and less on sustaining those now living -- at whatever cost to our ability to do anything else.
1
In short, the Republicans are for spending/tax cuts if and when they benefit the top 1 percent and--except for military spending--against them for everyone else. The justification is the unjust trickle-down economic theory.
4
Not to mention that this proposed budget also plans to completely slash the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which many teachers (like myself) and other public service employees are desperately hoping will help us escape the crushing student loan debt that is helping to ruin the economy and prevent people like us from acquiring any property or savings.
23
It Actually has written on the cover.
"Efficient, Effective, Accountable"
Yes, At gutting America, Enriching Trump and the oligarchs, Making sure the right wing knows who their obedient ones are.
One more thing about "Accountable"...Now how about where it counts for the Nation?
Just where are Trump's Tax returns?
42
The Republican approach to an aging society is terrifyingly clear. If you are not wealthy they will do everything possible to ensure that you do not have access to affordable healthcare, thus serving as a new approach to "entitlement reform". Ordinary Americans who die prematurely from treatable, preventable illness, because they cannot afford care, will not be a burden to the 1%. Vote Democratic, your life or the life of someone you love literally may depend on it. The "priorities" in this White House budget should serve as a clear warning to all working Americans.
36
Anerica's "mighty military" will be its downfall. In many ways, it already is. Taxpayer monies are spent endlessly, mindlessly and without limit on the latest and greatest tools of war. Meanwhile, back within the so called "homeland", the majority of its citizens (poor, working and middle classes), slide further into oblivion, struggling more and more on every front just to stay alive in the land of "unfettered capitalism" where currently, the dignity and value of ones life is reserved only for its wealthiest citizens.
31
You've got it wrong. It wasn't about "sticking up for working people." Rather it was "sticking it to working people."
30
Don’t forget the budget also targets the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. They are supposed to share $109M in 2019, which would be a cut of $917M.
If there is something that can help poor or middle class Americans with their health, housing, transportation, education, or just a way to bring beauty and culture into their lives, it will be targeted by this administration.
(Don’t forget - he hasn’t read any of this. I can’t wait to hear his nonsensical bloviating. Someone in the White House is trying to figure out how to make this tome into a one-pager, with lots of pictures.)
28
"They" wanted a businessman; they got one: Their businessman proposes a poor-people's version of "Blue Apron" in place of food stamps. A box of food- no fresh fruits or veggies, but 100% American Canned food. (Various reports, CNN; NPR) A life-time Cap on Medicaid: when you outlive your allotment- you die. Part of me can't stop laughing but the other feels such pity for the ignorant masses who wasted their vote (White spite and misogyny).
Of course, these ideas aren't coming from Donald Trump; his thinking isn't far-reaching enough for this. This "austerity" in a time of prosperity comes from those with a blinding hatred for the poor, the disabled, minorities... the profit masters who've waited for decades to find cover in the likes of a useful idiot [now] occupying the White House. (Marie Antoinette would be proud).
29
Oh yes, let's ALL hold this president and administration ACCOUNTABLE, as they so eloquently advertise on the cover of this delusional and cruel budget. Get thee to the mid-terms, people - vote these losers off the island!!!!
17
Time to accept the hard fact: the united states has failed. You can get out now before it crashes down, or you can be buried with it.
#calexit
12
Yes, Calexit!!
The GOP & their ilk don't like us anyway, we stand alone as the world's 6th largest economy, tremendous natural resources and a hard-working, forward-thinking population.
3
You and others like you would love to have us believe this. But we are stronger than you think. Get out and fight, people. Don't just hand it over.
1
Oh my yes! Please leave the door open for me?
Who you gonna believe, Trump or your lyin' eyes? What a fraud.
10
Your editorial is subtitled "What happened to all that talk about sticking up for working people?" You obviously misheard...what Trump and his little attack dog budget director actually meant is sticking it TO working people.
8
Editorial board, Trump promised people jobs, not handouts.
You had your handouts by Obama for 8 years.
Lastly, you said one line that’s a dead give away if your mind frame.
You said his budget is a transfer of wealth from the poor to rich. That is funny, because it defines exactly why you Have no idea what you are talking about.
The poor don’t have any wealth. What wealth?
The poor new opportunities (leading to jobs).
And we live in a capitalist society. If someone gets rich, it is non of your business.
1
The poor have Medicaid and food stamps. But you would have them starve and drop dead if they get sick. That’s not a capitalist society; that’s the Wild West, not a society at all, but predators only looking out for themselves, preying on their more vulnerable fellow citizens...
18
In this society, the way trump and his minions have reconfigured it, if someone gets rich it is because the system has been gamed in their favor.
1
whoa - aren't you filled with love of humanity .... why shouldn't the rich pay their fair share -- which they are not?
3
From the pen of the really real donald trump: "Fake news, fake news! I never said I was going to 'stick UP for working people.' I said I was going to 'stick IT TO working people!' And I am a man of my word."
10
Yes, millions of people got conned. Millions more saw through it. Millions still choose to be in denial...
17
No country can afford to finance both sides of a war. Aid to the Palestinians while at the same time providing billions to Israel. The US at one time had deep pockets but as John Wayne said "you are either with me or against me" Trump might be on to something.
When he gets in the office sometime this afternoon, somebody needs to explain the difference between "sticking up for" and "sticking it to"...
4
No, he's sticking up working people, or sticking it to working people.
1
From my rear-view mirror, it appears Mitt Romney's take on Trump was largely correct. In a 2016 speech at Hinckley University, Romney said, "Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He's playing the American public for suckers: He gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat. His domestic policies would lead to recession. His foreign policies would make America and the world less safe. He has neither the temperament nor the judgment to be president. And his personal qualities would mean that America would cease to be a shining city on a hill." Sounds like a pretty accurate prediction.
Given all that has happened over the past year - Trump's bullying and name-calling; his nasty, vindictive, vitriolic tweets; his White House in a permanent state of chaos; his cozy relationship with Putin coupled with his outright rejection of overwhelming proof of Russia's election meddling; his systematic efforts to rupture the institutions of American government, gut education, healthcare and environmental protections; his massive tax cut for the wealthy; his sowing fear and confusion around the world - now we see Trump reneging on his election promises to protect social safety net programs.
Romney was right: Trump has (once again) proven himself a liar, a con artist and a fraud. We can't trust a thing he says. The sooner we are rid of this monster, the better. I hope the end of the Trump era comes quickly.
22
What working America needs is jobs and a robust economy, not Democratic blather and handouts.
What America needs is democracy. (And a competent chief executive.)
3
This is what happens when you do not vote!!! In my lifetime I hope, thanks to Trump , we will now have Black Friday lines to the polling booths!!!
9
WINNERS and LOSERS in the Trump Administration and Budget.
If you are RICH and WHITE, you are a Republican who voted for Trump. You expected (and are getting) lower taxes, less regulation, school vouchers, higher stock prices, and maybe infrastructure spending. So far, so good!
If you are POOR and MINORITY, you got stuck with Trump. You will likely lose: health care, civil/voting rights, social services, and face LGBT issues.
If you are WELL EDUCATED and URBAN (probably a Democrat), you may have lost the election, but you too will benefit from lower taxes, less regulation, school vouchers, higher stock prices, and maybe infrastructure spending.
If you are LESS EDUCATED and RURAL, and "went Republican" in 2016, you might have expected to benefit from the Trump administration. But as it turns out, you will lose health care, social services, promised job growth, and infrastructure spending.
So, the WINNERS win, and the LOSERS lose--Just the opposite of what Trump promised.
4
How much does Trump have to do before the American People do more than just read about it in the newspaper?
7
No noise from those on the right. Crickets.
7
Elton John:
"Look to the east to see where the fat stock hide
Behind four walls of stone the rich man sleeps
It's time we put the flame torch to their keep
Burn Down the Mission...."
Trump and enablers do not value the lives of others. Trump builds a selfish, self-serving regime; filling it with socioeconomic racists. He and minions effect a twisted and self-serving view of Darwin: survival of the fittest...Trump et al are the 'the fittest' it is natural, they believe, to eliminate "the weak." They DO NOT VALUE others' lives. Trump admires Putin and Duterte: enough said.
Vote vote vote and encourage others to do the same: "Burn down the mission."
5
The (R)ussophile party has always had one goal, the destruction of America. Impoverishment of the masses has been their one method. They have been so successful that now Putin's shthell country can come take what they want.
3
"An American Budget: How to make America poorer, stupider, unhealthier, and more violent."
7
Then Trump will award (lucrative!!) tax-payer paid private contracts for incarcerating the 'hungry, undereducated, now-violent masses' who were sick and stole food. The nightmare is upon us.
2
Why is this a surprise yo anyone?
1
Our Dear Leader clearly likes what he sees in North Korea: a vast undereducated, poorly nourished, unhealthy population ruled by a fat bully and a well fed, syncophantic oligarchy kept in power by a bloated military. All he needed to get there was a corrupt Republican Party and the margins of the voting population still clinging to racist, nationalist beliefs. It didn’t help that too many Americans don’t bother to vote. God help the rest of us.
5
Trump to US voters: Ha, ha! Made you vote!!
Liar, liar, pants on fire! Let's hope that the average voters who put Trump and the GOP in charge, feel real pain from this budget, and get to the polls in November to clean up the House and the Senate. The wing nuts running the GOP serve only the rich and the fearful, while trampling the rule of law.
5
Ah, the Republican whirligigs in action - now you see it, now you don't.
"sticking it to working people"... fixed it for you.
2
Odd that Trump chose "Darwin Day" to release this pig. Hello "Survival of the Fittest" goodye "Social Safety Net".
1
The selling of America, or at least it`s most profitable assets. And trump has a bridge for sale, just pick one. It doesn`t matter to him that he doesn`t own them. All this for the common good, what ever is good for a common kleptomaniac as he changes our country to a Kleptocacy. trumps motto - I can change this country with a pen, from yours to mine.
1
This country is going down the toilet. FAST.
4
And it is up to the citizens to stop it. Don't just complain. It is time for action. FIGHT!
2
Let's hope that the people who voted for Trump will finally wake up and realize that they elected the world's biggest con -- and one with absolutely no morals -- to occupy the White House. Too, let's hope they also realize that the do-nothing Congress is doing nothing to stop this man from dishonoring our country.
6
People try to play nice when describing the Trump voters. No not all republicans are racists, but clearly his voters were the most gullible, ignorant, uneducated, foolish people you ever met. Coal miners could not understand that reducing regulation of Fracking or drilling oil off the coast would put a bigger nail in the coal coffin than any environmental regulation. Women Trumpies did not understand just how deep his contempt was for any woman with a brain. His tax cuts went to his donors. Military parades do not make America "great". You can't fix stupid.
12
Yet another TrumpScam. Thanks, GOP.
4
Dear Forgotten Men and Women,
FORGET YOU!
Deplorably Yours,
Donald J Trump
4
Liar, liar pants on fire. How is this different from any of Trump's other false promises? The best part is that he will deny he said anything about this even if there is a video. Talk about fake news. It dribbles from his jutting lips and fat fingers daily.
3
It's was obvious from the get go, that Trump is only interested in
“gleaming new Trump Towers, golf courses, gold toilet seats - for him- all across our land,”
1
The Koch brothers must be dancing on air.
2
Trump lied to every single person in this country who isn't well to do. For you folks voting for Trump was like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders.
11
Wealth transfer? Surprised! Isn’t that the purpose of the United States Government in a Republican administration?
Liars, brigands, billionaire bully’s for Greed. Taking the food out of children’s mouths for new nukes. Pretty sick country.
11
He is just a conman, an opportunist and an unrepentant liar. He needs to be gone and his congressional supporters for the US to survive as a functioning democracy. Many abroad argue now that the USA is over. As a citizen I have hope but it diminishes every day, with every djt move and every lie and every realisation that this is a thoroughly corrupt gang bent on destroying the country that gave them so much.
6
[[What happened to all that talk about sticking up for working people?]]
Spoiler Alert!
He's a liar.
4
It seems Trump was once again misquoted by “the liberal media”.
It wasn’t “stick up for”.
It was actually “stick it to”.
4
The book appears to be at least a 1500 page document. How much of that did Trump read? Or was he given the two-page comic book version? My guess is he could not recite the chapter headings. He is an unwitting tool of the extreme right; he is their useful idiot. What a pitiful state we have put ourselves in by electing him. All this catering to his base is putting the inmates in charge of the asylum. I put all my hope in the November elections and in Robert Mueller and I'm not all that confident in either.
6
There is no free lunch.
2
Tell that to the corporations
2
Mr. Trump's agenda is standard GOP policy. Talk racist talk doing the campaign, because the not-rich white will lick it up. Then once in office, take care of the 1%. This has been the formula since Nixon. MLK forced racist whites into code. Trump has risen by smashing the codebook and using a megaphone. The only perplexing thing here is why there are a group of GOP people feigning disgust. Racist calls have been their thing for 50 years. This immigrant bashing is racist. MLK was shot 50 years ago and these people are still hateful. Pretending otherwise is no solution.
1
I'll be candid in saying that at times I feel that the attacks on Trump/Republicans are over the top - comparisons to Hitler, calling them evil, painting more nuanced issues with broad brushes. I try and see things from a conservative perspective even though I disagree.
However in this case, I don't think much rhetoric can be too strong in stating how stupid and illogical this budget is. We are dealing with serious healthcare, education, and diplomatic issues, yet those are the program the White House wants to cut.. We are not in major military conflicts - nor should we be - and yet the white house looks to bolster military spending.
I don't like to over-use gender, but in this case it seems clear that a bunch of hard-nosed old white guys that want to have the biggest stick in the room are in charge. Without any reason, without any empirical evidence, without considering the US military is by far the largest in the world, they still want to increase the budget because it sounds masculine and alpha. It is absolutely ridiculous and very sad that people can support this non-nonsensical thinking
225
Hunter,
This is a very astute analysis. Given the fact that DT and the Republicans (and most conservatives in general) are nostalgic for an idealized time in history that never actually existed the way they presume it did, it stands to reason that old-fashioned, stereotypical masculinity is very much an unquestioned ideal for such people, especially for DT. The way he postures about his masculinity is laughable, precisely because it is so stereotypical and antiquated. That brand of masculinity has been questioned, and rejected by many, exactly because it is so detrimental to not just women and girls, but to boys and men as well--and a point many people still miss is how such extreme stereotypical masculinity has greatly harmed the world over historical time.
Today there is a social movement underway that defines real masculinity in much broader terms and in a way that enables many men to behave in a fully human manner (i.e., having emotions and openly admitting to having human frailties because hey, all humans do, instead of having to pretend to not be fully human.) From this perspective real men can be strong by being kind, caring, and humanly vulnerable instead of having to pretend to be unfeeling and violent.
4
Finally, some honesty from this administration!
Trump is showing his true colors, now.
Will his base wake up, or just keep waving the flag?
5
Will we EVER decrease military spending? Or at least direct it toward domestic programs? There was a time where the military spending meant domestic work projects where jobs were created and the country prospered instead of just lining the obscenely bloated pockets of the giant military contractors who are just as quick to sell arms to anyone as protect the nation. We have been at their mercy since the 50s.
6
So whats new, Politicians promise you the moon & once elected do what is good for the Party.Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.The Lost tribe of White, Blue Collar workers, who lost their Factory Jobs, are still waiting for their jobs to come back. You did what Trump wanted, you gave him the Rust Belt States, which helped to elect him. He doesn’t need you anymore & is now showing his true colors as a defender of the 1% who have always been the Republican priority..
4
We should stop taking this budget as a serious proposal. It is not. But by staking out an agenda that he knows Congress won't pass, he absolves himself from any responsibility for economic or policy failure of which there will be plenty. Once again, Trump shows himself as the liar that he is, that his campaign promises are as dead as the cardboard cutouts of Trump. The Republican Party owns this horror show.
4
Buzz Windrip playbook, line for line. It CAN happen here, unless YOU stand up and call him out. Democracy is not dead, I see it in the NYT every day, I see it in protest marches, petitions, and I hope to see it in votes, but since we are a capitalist country, the real power is in your dollar. THINK before you spend, check who is getting your money and what they are doing with it, and ask yourself, do I really NEED that widget? Let's show 'em who's boss. All together now.
3
RE: What happened to all that talking about sticking up for working Americans?
Trump is sticking up for us. No more taxing us to pay for the lazy and irresponsible. No more money for "single" e.g. unwed mothers, no more money for people who did not save for their old age. For every real true case of need and misfortune there are 999 cases of people shirking their responsibility and looking for a handout from the taxpayer.
VIVA TRUMP!
1
Well, with Trump's proposed Medicare cuts, start saving to pay for your own health care when you hit age 65. And you'd better save to pay for your parents as well. Remember, Medicaid won't be paying for nursing homes for elders who exhaust their assets paying for $200,000/year care. With Trump's cuts to immigration, we're due to have a home health aide shortage, but I know you won't mind giving up your job to care for Mom in your own home.
3
How is it that a step became a stumble and the stumble a headlong tumble into a world that few Americans, let alone the rest of humanity, would have chosen if they had been given a choice?
Donald Trump's personal limitations make it hard to credit him as being anything more than the political equivalent of a carnival barker. This is man that does not think. He's a shallow, self-serving provocateur. Nothing more.
Is their an actual architect or set of architects to this dystopian process or are the wheels being turned by nothing more than naked ignorance, hostility, greed, and narcissism having little to do with consensus and the rule of law?
I believe it's the later. And bestowing the grand title of "An American Budget" provides the further descent into chaos with the presumption of thoughtful planning. There's no more plan here than the Pirates of Tortuga.
Yeah, the American ship of state is now being run by the likes of Blackbeard, Calico Jack, and Captain Kidd. And, guess what, the rest of us have been shanghaied as scullery maids and galley slaves. Some were in a foolish drunken stupor when taken on board. Everyone else got waylaid.
3
Trump has lied about everything from the beginning. Why would anyone believe a word he says about anything?
3
all that talk about sticking up for the working people was just that- talk.
3
The thing is, all those "poorly educated" and working-class folks whom Donald Trump boasted he loved, fell for his trick -- while everyone else with a modicum of awareness about this man and his pathological habit of lying knew better.
That's why this perfidious budget of his is not surprising.
Nor are his efforts to rob this country of its last nickel and dime, while the rich get richer and the poor are driven off the map.
So, America. You call this "winning"?
5
Trump's budget proposal is beyond belief. If there is an evil, poorly thought out, despicable, expensive, militaristic, or worthless course of action, Trump will champion it and proclaim it the best solution for his people. And yet... the Republicans will go along with it, and Schumer will wilt.
2
The people who actually believed that this charlatan was interested in their betterment won't even notice. They are glad to support him because he shares their hates. This is the brainchild of that Tea Party malignancy, Mulvaney, and will probably not all come to pass but it does point to where their beliefs are. We are in a mess for the next few years, Elections have consequences.
5
Hey, look on the bright side: Trump never read this budget, nevermind crafted it. Likewise he’ll never read the version drafted by Congress and will sign it based upon their three-sentence executive summary.
It’s the GOP Congress that is captain of this ship or, more accurately, the handful of wealthy wackos that bought their election.
3
Budgets are a statement of principles. 45s principles are quite clear that he only cares about the rich, continues to love debt and does not care about the poor and needy. I guess the Tea Party ran out of steam.
7
I wonder how long it will take before Trump's base figures out that they're in the bull's eye. While Mrs. Clinton surely offended them up front with the "deplorables" remark (and she did not deserve to win after that remark), Trump is all waves and smiles up front, while he's undermining their safety nets AND probably increasing their taxes behind their backs. I shed no tears for them, they made their own bed. I have genuine fear for the rest, who got cheated out of their votes and whose very survival will become even more fragile under the GOP/Trump regime.
I hear no mention of cutting Congress' health care or pension benefits.
8
Look no further than Indiana to see how well turning over your toll road to a private enterprise went. Soon bankrupt after letting the interstate deteriorate badly. And guess who was governor in September 2014? None other than the sitting VP.
While he was not responsible for the brilliant idea of selling the toll road to a private enterprise in 2005 (that was another Republican governor, Mitch Daniels), he did allow the bankrupt toll road to be resold to an Australian investment consortium. Way to go, Indiana. And guess what? It's still full of potholes, in constant need of repair. Why? Because investment consortiums do not build roads; they maximize profit. Duh.
8
The military industrial complex is alive and well and it exists to enrich its investors. It's why America will always be fighting some war whether it's in the Middle East or the war on drugs with no end in sight. We have been sold the idea that our military is the mightiest, but those who sell it would never put their kids in those boots on the ground. Every year the military budget gets increased while those domestic services for the average American gets slashed, driving them into the military. How else would you recruit soldiers serving the military industrial complex when you don't have a draft system?
6
Cutting funding for the arts, reductions in Medicaid/Medicare and eliminating food choice for those who need support in feeding families - it is insanity. The fear for our future is palpable. The incarnation of varied dictators with a return to "Divine Right" hastens the fall of our democracy. His enablers and family travel first class on the taxpayer dime and his policies are taking food out of the mouths of babies and children. We need a taxpayer revolt and withhold taxes from this monstrous beast and his cronies.
8
Now would be a good time to revisit those $1000 toilet seats the Pentagon buys, the golf courses they build for the recreation of their generals and admirals in far-flung corners of the world, the huge cost overruns for new high-tech planes and weapons' systems that corporate contractors give us their bills for. Put the findings of that Pentagon audit that is now underway on your front pages. Show us pictures of the military hardware that is either idle or discarded in Afghanistan and Iraq. We need some "show and tell" to punch a hole in the patriotic rhetoric Republicans use to feed their military-industrial complex corporate donors and persuade genuinely patriotic Americans to vote for them time and again.
4
Excellent point. Trump's love of the military which he refused to serve in will lead to massive wasteful spending just because it has the "defense" mantel on it. Military spending is enormously unmonitored and is hard to touch because the critics are called "un-American".
1
Should Trump's proposal to cut Medicaid and Medicare succeed, I wonder how his supporters will deal with those reductions. Fake news will have a new meaning. So much for the man of the people and the common man.
4
Yet most who voted for Trump will continue to support him. Sad.
4
There's a great line about politics: Don't tell me what your values are. Show me your budget, and I will tell you what your values are.
And in reading Trump's budget, it's clear which values he considers important: enriching the rich and punishing the poor.
5
President Trump is doing things in contravention of
his election campaign promises. Amazingly his
base still believes he is doing everything he said
during the campaign. It is disappointing that the voters
are unable to understand the issues. Elections are
becoming increasingly the triumph of rhetoric as
the candidates, helped by opinion surveys and consultants,
are willing to make promises they don't intend to
keep. No wonder Michael Bloomberg, former NY
mayor, called Trump a con man. He surely conned
62 million voters.
5
The fundamental issue here is that many people, including college educated white women, didn't see, or chose not to see, through the cheap lying words of this used-car-salesman president and voted for him. Now we have a bunch of tools enabling his egregious actions. The problem we face today is the lack of checks and balances, and the lack of politicians with a real conscience, courage, and chutzpah.
5
And this is different from what the Republicans have sold for decades, how? The only price they've paid is to be handed control of most states and repeated control of Congress with exactly these policies. Call it masochism if you want, but Americans have repeatedly asked, begged, and demanded to be thrown in front of the bus.
And the Republicans have listened.
5
I would apologize to my children if I had voted for this mistake of a President. However, as a citizen I must apologize to all young people and the elderly for this awful excuse for a Budget. I still don't understand, where is the discussion on the Military? Are we not doing less with more? Military salaries are going through the roof! Starting salaries, alone, is $20,000 for a Basic Trainee. I know of an E-4 that made $110,000 in his final year, six years ago! When I left the Military in 1980, I made $6,000 a year. How about you?
5
Weakened Worker Safety Regulations. Policies that allow the owner to take a wait staff's tips, indifference to environment and education all policies of Trump and his GOP. Billionaires who knew Trump for years warned us he was a conman but people preferred to believe the Russia and FOX NOISE talking heads. Well the joke is on working America and their children. The upper classes are doing just dandy under Trump. It been a banner year for corporate America and the top 5%. MAGA does not involve working America the ultimate Trump lie, just one of thousands.
2
It is interesting to note the Real Clear Politics (consistent, chronic) statistic that 54.9% of Americans think Trump is dragging the country in the wrong direction, while only 38% think he's moving in the right direction.
The overwhelming majority of Americans rejected Trump on the 2016 election. The Trump budget is further proof that he is every horrible thing most of us anticipated, and worse.
But we are captive now, stuck with no way to correct the catastrophe caused by the electoral college. We are powerless to stop the destructive influence of Trump even as we watch it expanding right in our faces.
We need a way out of this: nullification of the electoral college, and the institution of a way for the voters to remove a president when he has lost popular support and confidence. We WANT this. Trump does not deserve to be in his position. We want democracy !!
5
My God! Trump’s budget shell game with peoples’ access to Healthcare including Medicare and Medicaid can only be described as heartless if not downright evil. Through the callous autocratic actions of Trump, Ryan and McConnell’s prayers at the altar of their only goddess, Ayn Rand, are being answered. And, the actions of evangelicals in their unfettered beatification of Trump and his irreligious racism, misogyny, narcissism, and basic inhumanity is truly sacrilegious.
Of course, Trump is cutting funding to the Humanities and Arts because he doesn’t read or see a need in anything related to art except gold trinkets. He is decimating PBS and NPR because Fox TV News is the only true news, and Limbaugh is all that one needs to listen to on the radio. Oh, has Ivanka yet said “Let them eat cake?” Or, “I have never had a problem with healthcare! What’s the big deal? I mean if you don’t have healthcare doesn’t that just mean you shouldn’t have healthcare because you’re not worthy of healthcare? Some of my best friends are plastic surgeons, and they are doing very well financially without having to see dirty little poor people to make additional money.”
3
This is definitely a PR document.. it has all the dog whistles his base wants to hear. In terms of a guide for Congress? This is basically the White House's way of saying, "you are on your own. we don't plan to be serious enough to be involved in any way."
This White House has never been serious about legislating. Almost everything they have done has been for PR purposes.
3
This is an excellent summary of what Trump wants to do - but how can one get this information out to people who only watch Fox news and Breitbart? The democrats should start putting ads on TV - not for a candidate but just telling people what the Republicans are up to. Bill boards where people commute. Facebook ads? Ads on google searches for medicare or insurance or other search terms. I hope democrats are more creative about getting the truth out to the population than in years past.
6
Trump is being the Trump everybody knew he would be before the election. Useless even a bane to most folks. And a super hero to right wing plutocrats. The Republicans once again run the gov't and the first thing they do is cause deficits to go sky high then claim they have to massively cut spending. Which will adversely impact most of their own voters.
9
Absolutely no surprise here,
But GOP please note that as your fearless orange leader cuts and hits the poor, the retired, then helpless the third rail of politics and economics will be live and waiting for you,
As the consequences of this irresponsible and stupid budget become clear the November blue wave should be enormous.
But nice to know that Trump loves the wealthy and corporations more than the average Joe. In his inaugural speech he proudly stated "the carnage stops now" No Don, it begins now.
10
Don the Con... working on his masterpiece; scamming a nation of 325 million people. His wealth will increase 10 fold and the rest of America will be bankrupted, both morally and financially.
7
Whether or not Donald John Trump's budget is tasty or nasty is hidden from the American people in Trump's personal and family and business income tax returns and business records. But it is not hidden from smirking and smiling Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
8
There goes the fake news again.
Trump never said he was going to "stick up" for poor people. Trump said he was going to "stick it to" poor people.
7
God help the working and poor.
The GOP are going to slaughter you to appease Wall Street.
The Democrats are going to slaughter you to appease globalization and identity politics.
I guess this is the prefect example of being between a rock and a hard spot.
The DNC and the Democratic Congress must constantly show the hypocrisy of Trump’s campaign pledges with the reality of his policies. They must inundate the public with sound bites of his words versus his deeds. Use Trump’s strategy against him to show, in black and white, what a liar he is.
7
With all due respect, Donald Trump's proposed budget is not nasty. It is a hateful, destructive, and hurtful budget. His approved $1.5 billion tax cut in December was his version of the Trojan Horse - let the middle class and masses think they're getting a break, a deal, a reward but in the harsh reality of Trump Land, the few bucks people get back from the government in the months ahead will be an insult compared to what Trump has in store for those who need, who rely, who have paid into so-called "entitlement" programs.
The dark days of Donald continue to get darker, more dismal and more destructive with each passing week. Never in my 60++++ years did I ever imagine I would fear my own government more than any possible threat from North Korea.
8
I'm sure he has no idea what's in the budget. Remember, he doesn't read.
3
Definitely enjoy reading the Times these days. dDid not realize the budget is so full of good news until I read the stats in this piece.
What's galling are the people who need the services they are trying to slash or ignore who are 'still' fervently Republican. There truly is a huge problem with our education system if the common man has turned over his brain to whoever. At a time where we see an autocratic-like leader, I'm a bit scared about this mob. This ignorance is appalling to anyone that should know better Say we made a mistake, all of us, please. Then lets do something instead of worrying as it happens. Let us call out those enablers in Washington who should have shut this Circus down long ago!
2
What happened to people with eyes to see and ears to hear and a mind with which to reason. This President has been a liar and a cheat for at least 40 years, and there was no reason at all to believe he told the truth when he made campaign promises. "How could you believe me when I said 'I love you' when you know I've been a liar all my life? I've had that reputation since I was a youth; you must have been insane to think I'd tell you the truth."
3
Even his budget is a lie.
4
Do Trump supporters understand that they are in large majority the individuals that will be most harmed by degrading social safety nets like Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps, etc.? This nasty Trump budget should certainly get the AARP organization moving!
1
Does ANY of Trumps supporters read the NYT? Do they care about “promises” and budget proposal?
No, No and No.
All that Trump voters care about is their “white rural rights” - ban abortion, don’t regulate guns and bashing immigrants/ minorities.
They don’t care about College education, environment, healthcare, debt and budget deficits (unless Dems get blamed for it).
The “conservative” voters are like mindless zombies, who can be controlled by 2-3 buttons and will vote for Trump and his GOP cronies no matter what.
So, why bother addressing them in articles like this? Appeal to people who care to read, think and analyze evidence. Trump voters are not them.
3
I would be surprised if he has spent more than 10 minutes learning what's in it.
3
If his voters wonder why they're getting conned by a con man, they should look up the tale about the scorpion and the frog.
2
Nasty America comes home. We've avoided looking at the decline of the American Dream, the middle class, affordable housing, education, health care, etc. So, we elect the madman that told the angry ones without,that he was with them, and the cunning wealthy ones that knew what he'd do for them.
The bully-in-chief, calling others names like a spoiled little boy, has the keys now. The right-wing has to take the blame; but, us too, for we're complicit in the recklessness that concentration of wealth, property and power creates. We're the democracy in crisis. Self-made crisis.
Democrats, humbly, must say what we believe in: equality, compassion, an end to poverty, community, a clean and balanced environment, a clear discussion of what the tech/information age will require of us. I mean, what we will need to do to stop the rot of the many, and the elevation to riches for the few. Say it, mean it, deal with it. Bernie Sanders' idealism is truth. Jeremy Corbyn's is truth. The People know.
This budget is dead on arrive. I am so glad this guy is so greedy and vain, so dumb as a leader. This is a budget that must be defeated. The war-avoider can only try to hide behind the flag and the troops and his parade for so long. Call him out: bankrupt businessman bailed out by Russians oligarchs through German banks; sexist, racist, classist, climate change denier (maybe the most deadly of all), billionaire working so hard to get ever more. We the People's mad, nasty, criminal-in-chief.
2
It turns out to be amzingly difficult for human beings to cope with the guys who just make stuff up and say whatever they think will work at the moment, and have absolutely no interest in whether or not it's true, and even less interest in keepng any of their extravagant promises.
Apparently we do okay with minor liars and fantasists, but get completely confused when we run into somebody with a Zeppelin-sized ego and absolutely no scruples.
By the way, Trump's promises aren't the same as Bernie Sanders. Certainly Bernie can't get Medicare for All done, or provide everybody with Free College (at least, not without taxes and rationings that nobody with an income and health insurance would go for), bit the man DOES mean it, and at least tries to follow through.
Trump? Nah. That stuff's for suckers.
3
As the former CFO of a multinational then a consultant to small, medium enterprises and VCs and Private Equity I always stood by the maxim, read the words then look at the numbers. Underlying assumptions paint the true picture of a budgets viability, effectively tells one, does it make sense?
Based on preliminary news reports this one is not viable, indeed appears to be a very poor indicator of the Executive Branch's expected outcomes if adopted as written .
3
Wonderful. A budget that Putin would be proud of.
Break the transportation system of the country, throw the few protections the citizens have away, ruin, sell and give away the national parks and resources.
Take away the medical services whose prices are at an all-time so that people have no help.
In short, ruin the country's resources so Russia and China can buy it on the cheap.
A country invaded and bought without expending a single bullet.
Meanwhile, not a peep from the Red Republican party.
How shameful to have such poor leadership!
8
We are unarguably an oligarchy.
U.S. Democracy, RIP.
11
Trump is treating America just like he treated his casinos, airline, steaks, vodka and fake university - all destined to go bust. No evidence of regret for lying about pretty much everything. And once again, the GOP just sits by and watches, spineless and complicit.
9
The Times is preaching to the choir. We need editorials like this to run in the rust belt states so people can see what they voted for and what they have actually gotten.
9
Dear Sledge,
You are 100% correct. I will send this to my friends in N.C..
2
thank god I'm making plans to send my child away to a safer and saner country. wish my dad had chosen another place to immigrate to also.
4
Clearly the message to lower and middle income Americans is "Join the Army!"
2
Trump punching back at all the 'losers' who didn't vote for him? Doubling or tripling down? Well, the country can just declare bankruptcy, right?
2
Anyone who believes anything Trump says, said, or will say is either a) blind to his history; b) ignorant beyond cure; or c) so drunk on the FOX News kool aid they still think they will be better off by him. Those who knew him and knew of him prior to 2016 are not surprised, except by how much worse things continue to get.
5
As if he read his own budget and has a clue what's in it. FORE!
3
The NYT needs to start using the word "Evil" constantly instead of nasty, bad,etc., when referring to Trump, Republicans and the Administration.
The Evangelicals can't in all conscience sign on to Evil, but they can (and obviously do) brush aside the other words as just politics and fake news.
4
Why don't our congresspeople, Republican and Democratic, say aloud what they must be thinking? "Our president is an inveterate liar. We can't believe anything he says, and we must work without him." Let them do their jobs. If he vetoes, he vetoes. Then they have to try again. So what? What are they paid for? Surely not for groveling to what they think the president may want on any given Thursday.
2
I can't speak for the Democrats who are trying to protest. but are ignored or outvotes, but I know why Republicans are do silent i.e. complicit. Most Repubs are Ayn Randers, whose main job on earth is to destroy the safety net that most Americans have been relying on for their entire lives. These people want to take away benefits that most people have been paying for their entire working lives.
More toll roads? I'm shocked, SHOCKED!
3
You asked what happened to all the talk about the working man.. Did you for a second believe tht Trump actually stood for the working man? I surely didn't, in fact nobody but his 30% base believed Trump about anything.
4
GOP rationale: “But it all makes sense you know. For some reason, we don’t have the same amount coming in to fund these programs so we have to cut them.”
What is that you say? Self fulfilling prophecy? How dare you accuse Paul Ryan or the rest of the GOP of that!
5
Remember: tax cuts doesn't increase the debt -- spending does!
Just ask Paul Ryan.
Psychology text tell you that sycophants draw their power from the narcissist. This budget explains that dynamic and why Republicans tolerate the crazy-making narcissistic President. Every Paul Ryan dream of budget that rewards the population based on beliefs that poor = unworthy, immigrant = criminal, and wealthy = should be rewarded, is realized in this cruel, shortsighted budget. Therefore, you cannot expect this Republican Congress to provide any protection or oversight on Trump, but instead to be his enabler. The only sane solution here is for the public to remove the Republican controlled Congress and thereby Trump from office.
1
Make America Grovel Again. It’s payback for attacking him.
2
Trump is a fraud and a con. What else should we expect? Even a carnival barker has to deliver at least something, or one crowd will tell another not to go in. Trump is still marveling that he was able to pull such a large crowd.
1
What happened to all the talk? It was just that--all talk, just as Trump's pathetic infrastructure nonsense is all talk.
1
If anyone hasn't figured out yet that he's simply a Huge Liar, now's the time.
3
This was the plan all along: to stick it to the middle class while preaching the contrary. Is anybody surprised? The president is a liar and we knew that from the campaign and since. Why people voted for him is the question democrats should be asking or we will have 8 years of this grotesque nightmare. Here’s a clue: it’s not DACA.
4
I hope his MAGA voters are surprised. If they are, it's a sign they're finally paying attention to reality and seeing what a lie all those promises were.
This is exactly what his supporters wanted. All those non-college whites who voted for him weren't poor. So they don't care that all of these cuts are made. They think that poor people are sloven moochers who should just die off if they can't figure out a way to make money. As long as they're ok, they don't care about anyone else.
9
There is one thing he didn't lie about. One year into office, I am tired of Trump's winning. Let's hope all the losers will finally get that they were bought with lies and sold by a self-serving egomaniac.
7
This budget and the tax cut explain why republican leaders and rank and file members in Congress do not criticize trump and are willing to be humiliated by him: he's the useful idiot. He has no guiding principles in politics other than crass capitalism and he has no moral center whatsoever. He can be easily co-opted to pursue the most extreme version of republican politics where others would flinch. A once in a lifetime opportunity to install the kleptocratic regime they seek.
10
Why the shock? This president and his minions are a wrecking ball to every ideal and every value Americans have worked towards for generations.
All those impacted or offended by this man and his administration need to do just one simple thing. VOTE
16
In 2016 he promised to “save Social Security and Medicare without cuts.”
In 2018 he "proposed a budget that would slash spending on Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, transportation and other essential government services, all while increasing the federal deficit."
If the Democrats won't pound on this relentlessly, then what good are they? Forget about transgender bathrooms, Medicare is a life and death issue that affects everyone personally.
19
Excellent article. This should be required reading in every state, school, home and assembly. Thank you!
7
This document is clearly the handiwork of Mick Mulvaney, who came into his position publicly proclaiming the need to cut basically everything the Federal government does. I doubt anyone believes that Trump himself has actually read the budget document, or is much interested in its contents.
The greater irony is Mulvaney's philosophy is now old hat. His party has since decided that Federal spending, in the form of tax cuts for the rich and corporations, is a good thing after all, and damn the resulting deficits. Like AG Sessions's approach to law enforcement, Mulvaney is applying yesterday's solutions to tomorrow's problems.
6
What about the democratic party's "we feel your pain" alleged concern about America's poor and working class? Where has that been for 4 decades as they have colluded with our corporate neo liberal Robber Barons to ship several million manufacturing jobs to human rights denying China, and against popular opinion imported 10's of millions of desperate immigrants from the violent, corrupt and misogamist global south to kill wages for what jobs remain in the USA? Oh that's right! As the party brand of welfare, that gives out just enough government dispersed crumbs to keep people alive & desperate, the democratic party continually conspires and takes action to to increase the percentage of Americans in poverty. And again what that largely consists of now is importing 1-2 million mostly 6th grade educational equivalency, no English immigrants a year (and encouraging them to NOT assimilate learn English obey our laws). That's why the democrats are so hysterically against lowering our highest in the world immigration rates and enforcing our immigration laws. Even though in the same media and paper issues its reported that robotics are going to kill all the no-skill jobs that the same greedy organized crime criminals that gave us the 2008 crash say they needed ever more slave-wage immigrants to do.
3
There is an important dimension to the discussion of infrastructure repair and replacement, one that I haven't seen discussed in the news: the effect of climate change on the longevity of highways, bridges, railroad tracks, and other transportation infrastructure. So many of these structures were built within a few miles of coastline; thus, they are subject to river surges and other storm damage that scientists warn will become more intense and longer-lasting if we take no action on climate change.
But wait . . . is this disconnect in the discussion somehow related to federal agencies' discarding phrases such "climate change" and "Paris Agreement"? Their published research and web sites have changed the vocabulary. Haven't the Department of Energy, Transportation, Environmental Protection, Health, etc., swapped climate-relevant words for phrases like "new jobs" and "wealth creation"? Hasn't the departure of scientists from federal agencies left the discussion with too limited a vocabulary to plan adequately for future generations? Trump's head-in-the-sand approach to long-term infrastructure investment has me wondering whether much of the cost of repairing coastline highways and bridges may be wasted while we're still trying to pay for it, as we witness more superstorms wiping out multi-million-dollar structures. If we are not going to take action to fight climate change, we leave ourselves vulnerable to it--foolish neglect in the face of reality.
7
Some excellent, objective and quantifiable points in this article. I am hoping that key aspects of this proposal that goes in exact opposite of his election promises would be on bill boards every where. I am hoping that footage of his election promises that are critical for his voter base and contradicting proposal in his budget will start airing on all channels pretty soon.
I am hoping democrats will capitalize on this opportunity.
6
what promise and principal means to trump is he will go right to line of breaking the law and will not cross it... he just views those two words as a challenge
1
Continue to remind voters every time the president breaks a promise he made during the presidential campaign.
That sea of red-hatted enthusiasts deserves to know the ease with which the president casually tossed “untouchables” into the budget hopper, supporting the interests of donors-not-inclined-to-care, among the many reversals of his promises.
It matters little that the president’s plan will not be adopted. Important, however, is that naked hypocrisy is continuously exposed.
9
I doubt Trump ever read it or even opened the cover. He has no idea what's in there.
8
Trump's working class supporters were nothing to him but convenient marks.
He conned them just has he's been conning people for his entire career.
10
There is one thing that Trump is consistent about: He always lies.
12
Military spending is a sacred cow in the USA.Did you hear any democrats complain about the increase.Crazy world.If human beings were sane people,military spending would be cut by half.Imagine all that money going to the lower class and infrastructure.Life could be beautiful if we had sane people in power.No chance of that with crazy Trump at the top.So sad...
6
As I recall, Trump said that he could shoot someone in Times Square and get away with it. This budget is tantamount to taking a machine gun to mow down Americans in Times Square. Are there really Americans who think this is good for our country? I cannot believe that there are thinking people anywhere in America that could possibly support this.
8
I can't understand this aggrandized need to spend more and more on the military , this kind of thinking has got to stop. Are we here in the USA a Democracy or a would be Empire? One cancels out the other, and everything I see is the build up of an Empire. With Military bases all over the world, and endless expansion of Military spending. The so called leaders of this country are pursuing a fools errand if they think this kind of spending will lead to security and prosperity for the citizens of the USA. Remember Eisenhower's final speech, beware of the Military Industrial Complex, if we don't it will ruin this country, if it hasn't already.
8
The president’s suggestion to cut food stamps is to provide a “Blue Apron” type box of food.
One can only imagine what a government box of “Blue Apron” food might contain. Certainly not fresh fruits and vegetables.
And what chosen buddies of the president would get the contracts?
When the president is done giving away the government, the people who will suffer the most are the people who he refers to “as his base”. Trump gives new meaning to the old adage “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.”
Even after a year I’m still amazed at how people will vote against their own best interests. I hope they wake up before November.
8
Trump and the Republicans are crippling this country. Taking monies out of the public sphere and putting those resources into the hands of the private sector just weakens us as a people, and as a country.
4
An American Budget? More like An American Tragedy.
4
I wonder what the budget would look like if Donald had bigger hands.
2
Trump's Vision of America is twisted. This experiment has been run before. He is imitating Reagan except in a cruel way. We are headed into a downward spiral fueled by the greed of the President and his ilk. Just when you think it can't get worse, it does.
2
How long will it take for the NYT and others to realize that everything Trump does it part of a negotiation? Say if Trump truly wanted a 5% cut in the State department- if he proposed 5% he would be lucky to get 2% cut. In throwing out the first number- he gets to set the terms. Actions vs words- Trump just signed for 300 Billion in new spending over the next 2 years. That's not a sign of a President who really wants to cut the budget. What is nasty is the debt that both parties are refusing to seriously address and simply passing it on to our children
No surprises here.
He's a man who's life was built on scams and sold the American people a bill of goods.
He is being true to form.
5
Couldn't they choose paperless? I found the symbolism and the hermetic seal to be unsettling-- perhaps the title should be An American Tragedy where Drieser's the tragic hero suffers from " the consequence of his innate weaknesses: moral and physical cowardice, lack of scruple and self-discipline, muddled intellect, and unfocused ambition"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_American_Tragedy
2
If this editorial could be distributed in every small town newspaper, Evangelical church bulletin and local Fox station across the United States, would it possibly make a difference in the opinions of the Trump loyalists?
4
Yes, the Trump Administration has declared war on all but the billionaire class and a fraction of his ideological base. Of course, his broader base will not know of the declaration of war because they get their "news" from FOX and other outlets that repackages facts and reality for them.
2
The increase in military spending is another example of a transfer of wealth to the two percent who own 40% of this country. War is about profit. There hasn't been a good war since WW II. And, the Republicans care not about American citizens but about their own power and greed.
It would be helpful for the NYT to list the wealth of each member of Congress and Senate at beginning of their original term and today, although I suspect their funds are hidden and difficult to sort out. Trump is the most egregious example, the world's greatest conman, evil incarnate.
Unfortunately, this 2% are the power behind the power and the ones who actually run this country. It's sad to watch the decline of America into little more than a banana republic.
Vote all Republicans out of office, repeal Citizens United, and publicly finance all elections. Otherwise, the USA is doomed.
7
Trump wants to cut all of the protections and programs to ensure the health and well-being of American citizens in order to build up the military. To what purpose? Who do they intend to use the military against?
Modern conservatives think the only purpose of government is organized violence, especially in defense of property rights. That is why the connection between defense of male assaults upon women and this government is not a sideshow.
We are seeing incipient fascism here. Violence IS the program.
4
I am finding it is best not to refer intransigent pro-Trump Americans as 'supporters' or 'voters'. They should be referred to as 'believers'. Somehow these good people have allowed themselves to be cast under the spell of a wizard who is so feeble he cannot comprehend the funny pages. To Trump believers, logic, reason, facts, even reality itself are merely suggestive. And I believe they will hold this position even as they die of starvation.
3
This budget should come as no surprise to any informed voter and perhaps those republicans who vote exclusively with their wallets.
3
Whatever "Mr. Trump’s working-class supporters imagined" doesn't matter, even to them, so long as them pointy-headed libby-rul coastal elitists get thumbs poked in their eyes. Decades of bottom salving resentment baiting have stripped voters of any concern for their own well-being.
One policy consequence of such self-victimization is to drag high performing regions of the US down to the dregs of Texas health care, Mississippi schooling or Alabama infrastructure. Meanwhile, our global competitors forge forward.
10
If they really were "efficient, effective, accountable", why are they wasting tax dollars printing thousands of copies of this monstrosity? Has anyone ever heard of a computer screen in Washington?
3
And you forgot the biggest redistribution to the top: the deficit. Billions in debt does not mean the state borrows the money from some bank somewhere. The securities are sold to rich people, mostly in the same country, who then get paid back later with interest. The interest has to be paid on top of the debt already there, and it has to come from taxes. So, instead of taking the money from rich people who can afford it (taxation) and financing public necessities, the state takes it from the public (the existing money to be spent in the budget) and gives it to the rich, repaying them what they paid in taxes in the first place. The result of public debt is that all public tasks are financed by the poor or the middle-class. And that is its purpose.
2
Why do you people still sound surprised by all this? What makes you people think Trump is going to do the right thing ever? 62 million Americans think so little of themselves and the rest of the world that they elected Trump president, now we all have to live with it. You can complain all you want, but please, don't act surprised.
2
Presidential budgets are statements of principles, indeed (as Joe Biden once said: "Show me your budget and I'll tell you what you value."). This vile piece of work, which includes the elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts and the defunding of PBS, coupled with damage to the environment, the smoke-and-mirrors Tax Bill/Jobs Act, the shrinking of National Parks and Monuments, and the uncontrollable, pathological lying, the racism, misogyny, narcissism, and tacit encouragement of violence to which we have now become accustomed makes crystal clear his so-called values and principles (as if they weren't already). In my book he will go down as the President Who Killed America.
2
Hard to believe in 2018 we're right back to 1928.
5
We have since learned that President Trump is prone to exaggeration.
So, Trump wants to increase spending on the military. What part(s) of the military? The part that’s producing the F-35 Fighter, one of the most cost-over-runned programs in the history of the military (~$136Billion over)? Or increase the budget to the anti-base closure folks who prop up local economies with do-nothing jobs? If Trump said we’re spending the increase on cyber security and IT systems to prevent infiltration of our military systems...or even perhaps to improve cross-services medical care, I/we might be in favor...but we all know that’s not the case.
We just have to turn at least one of the Houses of Congress to the Dems. Just! We all have to get to work. These terrible policies will continue otherwise.
2
I'm frightened for the future of this country. The combination of name-calling and scapegoating during the campaign and a gullible, ill-informed electorate that is skeptical of the legitimate news media does not bode well for the future.
8
I have one question for all of the willfully uninformed who voted for this president. Why did you believe that Trump would ever care about the poor and middle class? This is a billionaire (although that claim has yet to be proven) who built his reputation by stiffing small businesses, declared multiple bankruptcies, defrauded students at his fake universities and never served a day in service to his country (claiming that he "sacrificed" by building a business)?
Although you may look upon informed people as elitists, they saw through Trump long before he went down the escalator for his big announcement. Do you think he cares about roads and bridges when he flies around in personal helicopters and private jets? Do you believe he worries about how much Medicare will cover when he is next in the hospital? Why should he worry about the nation's debt when he is the self-proclaimed "King of Debt?" He has enriched himself with new tax cuts and left your children with the debt.
This budget is no surprise to the informed people who voted against him. It is the best example of biting the hand that fed him. How long are you going to let him chew away?
9
Actually, we are fully informed.
Trump did not promise hand outs.
He promised opportunity, which is exactly what has been doing.
It’s unfortunate but Republicans voted for a bait-and-switch. It was a complete gamble to assume that trump would fulfill any of those promises, they are just words to get elected by.
Does nobody see the setup with Elain Chao? Speaker McConnell’s wife? Who all of a sudden gets to decide which companies will be awarded significant contracts? She can decide buyers for Dulles and National airports?! This is the reason Speaker McConnell is complicit with trumps ineptitude.
The good news is they won’t be able to stimulate the economy quickly enough with this infrastructure lie, and by November voters might be able to intercede.
5
This is the budget that Putin would advise Trump to make, one that pretends to "make America great" while sapping the strength of the country. By gutting SNAP (food stamps), he ensures that poor children will be unable to learn. By pretending to do something about infrastructure while in fact pushing it to deteriorate faster, he is undermining the post-WW2 conviction that a national transportation system is vital to our national security. By privatizing NASA he would leave the field to Russia.
America needs to repeal the tax cut wealth transfer to the already rich. To make America greater than it is, demand, not supply, has to be created. That is done by putting money in the hands of the middle class and poor, so they can spend. Wages need to rise; monetary benefits for the extremely poor have to be increased. America can only grow with open arms and a loving heart. Meanness is the way of disaster.
5
I wouldn't get too hung up on the President's budget just yet. First, Congress generally ignores the President's budget anyway. And second, Trump didn't even write the budget. This is clearly penned by powers other than Trump. Mick Mulvaney is the obvious suspect. Why the President would outsource his homework, along with significant political leverage, so nonchalantly? I don't know. Seems like another mistake from an incurious executive.
The important point is that the real budget and policy enacted by Congress is a mistake. We're overheating the economy while simultaneously eliminating our power to combat an economic crisis. The time to spend was back in 2012. Republicans were whistling a very different tune though. Dumping stimulus on the economy now is like tying both hands behind your backing and kicking a can of gasoline into a lit fireplace. This will not end well.
Make this his last budget with a Republican Congress. Take back both the Senate and House next November.
5
Did anyone really think that the president was on the side of the working man? Did those who voted for him really believe him when he said he would cut taxes and not social security, Medicare or Medicaid? Please the man doesn’t know how to tell the truth unless it benefits him. He has shown over and over that he is of the 1% and that is where all benefits must go. The GOP is ignorant if they think he is their man. The GOP needs to cut the cord and do what it’s supposed to do under the Constitution, enact legislation to help Americans. Let the president veto legislation that Congress has passed in a bipartisan manner. Let him take the responsibility for the office. Its not the GOP’s job to grovel at his feet. This is what the president said he was going to do if you just listened.
3
You say, "[i]f Congress adopted Mr. Trump’s proposal, millions of people would stand to lose health insurance, subsidized food, low-cost housing and other benefits. The result would be to greatly increase poverty and hunger in America.
This is surely not what most of Mr. Trump’s working-class supporters imagined..." Just as long as it's not them that's exactly what his most fervent supporters imagined.
2
Trump's end game is to leave his cynical destructive legacy on the remnants of the American experiment for decades to come. There can be no progress when future administrations and congressional majorities will, by necessity, be forced to vigorously devote all their time, energy, intellect and our money on creating a new social contract between the governed and their government that reflects the actual state of our union in this second decade of the 21st century, while excising the unconscionable debacle that already is the Trump Administration's legacy
2
I wonder how much the budget for ICE has been increased? Trump may actually read that part of his budget, as a private army above the law is important to any prospective dictator.
1
If you happen to be born in our inner cities you will need the following
1. Food stamps
2. Medicaid
3. Housing support
4. If you insist on work for medicaid then you must create jobs
This new budget reminds me of Reagan's budget when he cut funding and left us with no easy way to manage a HIV/Crack crisis. We learnt our lessons - I thought. But I think this budget is about doing everything the opposite of Mr. Obama's budget. It is plain vindictiveness. It can last only until January 2019.
The administration’s budget will destroy what is left of the ability of the country to function. The “USSR” has finally won.
1
Call your congressional representatives. This budget is bait and switch. So much so that even his base may start to realize that they have been had.
$500B cut to Medicare and $250B cut to Medicaid. To paraphrase a former Republican senator from Illinois, "Pretty soon your talking about real money."
Make the calls. It makes a difference.
7
Where will the state and local governments find the money to do intrastructure? Where they've already been finding it. Sales and use taxes and fees and personal property taxes. Gas taxes at the pump. Taxes tacked on to phone bills, utility bills and online sales. Taxes on hotel rooms and even hospital rooms, airline tickets and restaurant food. Occupational license fees, business licenses, drivers' licenses, hunting and fishing licenses, building permits, More fees on college students. All of these "hidden" taxes hit the "little guys," including the poorest of the poor, while the same states and cities are handing out multi-million=dollar tax "incentives" to corporations to relocate their headquarters and factories to their states and counties and building huge new sports stadiums for professional teams that big corporations can slap their names on. Trmp's infrastructure "plan" is just another incentive for state and local governments to take more money from the pockets of working people and the poor instead of the fat cats.
5
Because of the way Nebraska's state income tax is tied to federal taxes, Nebraskans face an additional $226 million dollars in state income tax in 2019. I can't imagine mine is the only state with this conundrum.
2
Prior to election, Trump proposed "Seven actions to protect American workers" in his first 100 days through his Contract with the American Voter. He also proposed an "End the Offshoring Act." Let's see how he's done:
1.Renegotiate NAFTA: Nope. It would probably hurt American workers if he did.
2.Withdraw from Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP): Yep. Now why this helps American workers is unclear.
3.Label China a currency manipulator: LOL, of course not.
4.Direct study to identify foreign trading abuses: Yeah, we're studying it.
5.Lift restrictions on $50 trillion worth of energy reserves: Yep.
6.Lift restrictions on infrastructure projects (Keystone pipeline): Yep.
7.Cancel payments to U.N. for climate change programs: Unclear whether we have, or why this would help workers.
8. End the Offshoring Act: LOL, no.
Of course the tax cuts adversely impact those earning less than $40,000 by 2021 and beyond according to the CBO. Further, the bottom 80% get 35% of the benefit of the tax cuts, less after ACA subsidy reductions and any further spending cuts, which mainly benefit the bottom 80%.
I am constantly amazed and amused by editorial boards who suddenly discover that Republicans who have always been the party of fiscal responsibility suddenly start spending like drunken sailors after years of spreading apocalyptic warnings about the national debt. They have been adhering to this cycle since 1980 but editorial boards can't seem to see the pattern.
Ever hear of a Republican strategist by the name of Jude Wanniski and his "two Santa Claus" theory? Take a look at https://www.commondreams.org/views/2009/01/26/two-santa-clauses-or-how-r... . It explains exactly what Republicans have been doing since 1980.
They run up the deficit and give the rich big tax breaks when they control the White House and then use the resulting national debt as an excuse to cut social safety net and infrastructure spending when Democrats control the White House. It is a simple but brilliant and massively effective political strategy that no one seems to recognize until it is too late.
4
It is clear that the GOP plan is coming together: drive up the deficit with tax cuts that favor their donors and then claim they must cut social programs to balance it. Ryan has been trying to that for years, even though he benefitted from the Social Security payments he received after his father passed away. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. No soul, no empathy, no integrity.
Don't forget to vote in November.....
2
We have seen that movie too in Canada. Conservative and Liberal and even New Democratic politicians promising no cuts in social programs and health and then doing it. It is what they call the reality of power.
This budget must be explained to the American public. Those who voted for Trump will not grasp the situation until it is put in place. Our states and cities are not able to bear the brunt of the financial burden it will bring.
Cui bono? Who profits from this? The defense industry and the top 1% per cent wealthy citizens. Who suffers? The rest of us!
1
Paul Ryan must be delighted. Finally someone in the White House who read (or more appropriately saw a movie about) Ayn Rand and practices its philosophy.
Let those undeserving poor work for the rich and give them a tent and an appropriately sized basket of food as compensation; not too much of it, just enough to keep them alive so that they can work some more. Maybe, just maybe, let the rich buy or sell those workers to fit their needs? That's an idea that would Make America Great Again! Don't despair, Mr. Ryan, that's coming in the 2020 budget.
5
Ryan's father must be rolling over in his grave, considering his family was on the dole after dad's death.
To me, this is obviously short-term vote-buying. If they can pad the paychecks of the "forgotten" to the tune of $1.50 per week or so, the republicans hope to get a feel-good bounce this coming November. They are trying to cater to the voters emotions. In the longer term, tax cuts for the poor and middle class will evaporate while the corporate tax cuts, which benefit the managerial class and the large stockholders, will still be in place. It is not in people's self-interest to subscribe to this political, economic, and moral heresy. The democrats need to to take the moral high ground and save this country from the plutocrats, before we have nothing left to save!
6
If... they attack Social Security or Medicare, there will be a new government in Washington next election... regardless of how distasteful the Democratic candidates are. We do not need to keep the military-industrial complex afloat to this extent. This money could be spent on infrastructure, bringing back jobs, technology research, health care, illegal immigration control and real STEM education.
4
What happened? Nothing new. He lied. He has lied for his entire adult life, something any voter could have determined before letting him make America a bankrupt third world dictatorship.
8
The forgotten people are still forgotten - yet they do not realize yet that they have been conned by a master conman. His Narcissistic Personality Disorder is what enables his one great talent - conning the innocent.
5
Trump has made millions by draining all the juice from his companies and then filing for bankruptcy (6 times). Why would anyone expect anything different in his approach to governing? He has no principles! As far as his campaign and state of the union promises, Trump has also established himself as a blatant fraud and liar. As frustrating as it is to witness the Trump presidency, Ryan and McConnell seem to be more than willing to make a deal with this devil. America needs to get woke or it will be broke!
6
Let's see if the folks who voted for this fraud pass the intelligence test this November.
7
We know that Mr. Trump is a compulsive liar, and that any campaign promises were fiction. In fact, one can almost assume that anything he says means you should interpret as him saying the opposite. I will never cease to marvel at pundits who are hanging on his words as though they mean anything.
5
What can one say about an evil bully who decides to peel away his thin veneer of humanity and go proudly all out for his self-inflated agenda and enrichment? I feel trump has crossed that border, stepped 'way over the line, been swallowed whole by his own machinations.... Nothing is out of bounds, illegal, improper, or over-the-top excessive as he maneuvers his few minions and power players to grab all they can before the ax falls. I'm getting tired of blatant ignorance and self-centered rule being a norm for this mockministration.
5
Come on, NYT editors: Please give the nation a detailed article on the needs of the military. The President says the military is weak. What are the facts? If the military budget stayed level, how exactly would this endanger us?
8
The biggest problem the military is having now is finding people who qualify to serve. The population seeking to join the military have obesity problems, drug problems and intelligence problems. Start educating the population if you want a ready military because future wars will be cyber wars. We need nerds who aren't spaced out on pot and opioids.
It's basically an all out civil war on the vast majority of Americans who aren't wealthy. The democrats and those republicans who have a shred of decency need to fight for the life of our country against a maniacal wannabe dictator and the cowardly sycophants who support him.
5
"he promised not to cut Medicare, Medicaid and other programs that benefit poor and middle-class families"
Trump is a serial liar. Anyone who has ever dealt with a serial liar before knows that they don't change. Of course he lied in his campaign promises, just like he lied to his suppliers about paying them, and to his bankers about his ability to pay back his loans. Duh!
4
You mean to tell me that Donald J. Trump lied to the American workers ?
Oh, no ! Say it isn't so. Why, he wouldn't do a thing like that, would he ?
2
Hard to believe that anyone anywhere actually believed Donald Trump of all people when he opened his mouth during his campaign. Even his friends know he is full of it. OK, when he was bragging, you knew he was sincere. Crazy but really believing in himself despite all reason. But promising to do things for other people? To be honest and above-board? His whole business model was predicated on flim-flam, mendacity and lawyering-up. Picking on people who couldn't bring the legal force to stop him from simply welching on a contract. 3500 lawsuits, 1300 got to court, so we read. And still there are people who enrolled in Trump U. The GOP wants to bankrupt cities. They are busily attacking from every angle. What's a state, city or municipality to do? Most of the time they have GOP in charge at the state, even local level. (Thanks Koch Bros. Inc. Love those commercials you run for yourself.) So this opinion tells us what we already know. But who's going to do something?
14
Please stop using terms like "math", "add up", "sum", "total", etc. when discussing the US Budget.
It's insulting to the concept of arithmetic and no budget author has any idea what they mean.
7
You deserve the government you voted for (or the one you complacently did not vote for--same same). The gullible among you voters who chose to buy hook, line, and sinker the profusion of lies by this shameless bloviator that were fact checked for you, you deserve this budget. Now, this is terribly cynical. But frankly I don't know where else to go with my emotions.
18
I understand...but what about the rest of us? The majority of us who did not vote for this horror? We do not deserve this!
The actual as well as psychic abuse to which this president is subjecting America on a daily basis is simply intolerable.
15
If you're surprised, shocked or incredulous, you haven't been paying attention.
13
Bottom line; Trump's a career con man and a liar. No real mystery here.
14
Takes a nasty president to produce a nasty budget. All the working class people who Trump gulled into thinking he's their champion! Once a huckster, always a huckster. Promises made, promises broken.
15
Thank you for using the most apt adjective, nasty. That is the best description of what Trump stands for, who he is. Just nasty.
14
His own word about Hillary Clinton used against him. But I don't see any of his fans wearing "Nasty man" shirts with pride. Though perhaps I am wrong: they loved wearing "Deplorables" shirts.
Anyone who thought 'sicking up for working people' was anything other then a garden-variety con hasn't been paying attention to the WH occupier's history. It's important to remember that the sucker always loses at Three-card Monte. You were conned, America. Royally.
10
"...Donald Trump told the “forgotten men and women of our country” that he would champion them...he promised not to cut Medicare, Medicaid and other programs that benefit poor and middle-class families..."
He lied...then lied again...and then lied some more...
11
Only the willfully ignorant and delusion can possibly harbor any illusions that this administration and the Republican party will ever do anything to help working class citizens. They are the party of the super-wealthy and corporations and always have been. Of course Trump was lying during the campaign - he lies every time he opens his mouth so no news there. The problem is that the Democratics have become "Republican-lite" and are no longer trusted by us in the working class to fight for our interests. What happens when you back people into a corner and take away all good options? We blow the place up unfortunately.
6
To paraphrase and old English proverb: A fool (Trump) and our money (US taxpayers) are soon parted.
6
Our country has almost 7000 atomic bombs. If that's not enough to to support us in any possible future military conflict, then nothing's going to be enough. We already have the strongest military in the world. We don't need to spend more money on what is already over the top spending.
However, what we do need is universal health care at a reasonable price for ALL Americans, including Medicaid and Medicare for all. In addition, all public education - from pre-school through college - should be free. Plus, our roads, railroads, airports, hospitals and all of our infrastructure should be modernized from top to bottom. Finally, everyone in this country who works should be receiving a salary that allows them to rent or buy a home, and still have money left for food, clothing and the enjoyment of life.
We already have too many weapons of war. What we and our children don't have is enough time or money for FUN.
60
The $4.4 billion budget proposal by Trump is essentially a defence budget to keep the Pentagon in good humour and war machine running not a vision document aimed to address the basic issues and concerns of society. Seen against the huge tax cuts given to the wealthy, and the two-year guaranteed spending plan with hiked debt ceiling the budget is bound to send the national debt sky-high from the current level of more than $20 trillions. The built-in military bias and social contempt to be seen in the Trump budget does not only show where lie his priorities and how neglectful he is about the wellbeing of the people, and even of the health of the public finance.
53
This Administration is just evil. Whenever there is a choice between doing a good thing and doing a bad thing (say, supporting Medicare/Medicaid v. throwing more money at an unnecessary weapons system), it inevitably picks the bad thing.
173
LOL ! Tolls for everyone, but no money for a tunnel under the Hudson. I cry everytime I go elsewhere, and see what can be done with infrastructure and mass transit, but, of course, Trump's 33% probably lines up nicely with people who "never had a passport".
47
'tolls for everyone' on property the American people own. They're going to sell it and then charge us to use it. Simply highway robbery.
1
And the Republicans will vote for this budget. Why? Because it is one of the greatest wealth transfers in our history - from the people to the oligarchs. The Republicans brought us the "great recession." Looks like they're now working on the great depression, finishing the destruction of our country. Looking for a bolt hole now.
66
Congress needs to put the WE back in the notion of "we the people." Our democracy must meet the needs of all people, not just the ones who are wealthy, white, and powerful. This budget lays bare the cruelty of the GOP's approach to governing and exposes the rot it its core. This is not a philosophical exercise -- this budget does very real harm to actual human beings. Our leaders should be ashamed of themselves.
53
AS the very poor, and the merely uneducated may not read about truths like these, and that the truth will not be reported on their favourite TV stations, I am concerned that those who do won't believe what the treacherous president and his astonishingly self-serving Republicans have done what they have to destroy their lives in many and varied ways while uplifting to the heavens the lives of the rich, I fear there will be large groups of people whose lives are going to be irrevocably changed by these new budgetary restrictions.
There will be sickness, hunger, bankruptcy, homelessness, misery, joblessness, and poverty in ever greater numbers; I doubt their voices will be heard as the glasses clink across the loaded dinner tables of the rich and famous for being rich.
Amazon will continue to drop on their doorsteps the purchases the rich have bought, hotels will continue to offer their suites to the rich, airports will continue to fly the rich to the distant resorts, but meanwhile there will be pain - unseen, unnoticed, by the unconcerned rich and the very rich, and considered unimportant by those enjoying their tax cuts to the hilt.
I believe the grand experiment to be dead in the water. The Republicans are a failed party.
And Lincoln - what of him? He is, of course, already dead; and his ideas totally reversed and ignored by the Republicans in their disgusting self-serving ways.
I believe he would be a Democrat. I hope we won't be another North Korea.
197
You say it perfectly, Elizabeth. And I'm afraid the apathy here will certainly not stir the populace to rebel. They'll just continue to stare at the propaganda and accept the crumbs that drop on the floor.
3
Surprise! Not all the very poor are uneducated idiots. Some of us are right here with you, reading the NYT online and despising His Treacherousness just as much as you. We are called the retired and disabled. We depend on so-called entitlements, such as Medicare and Social Security, both of which he now finds it necessary to dig into to support his great gifts to the super-rich and the moronic enlargement of our already bloated military (not to mention his filthy wall). Try not to lump all the poor in with trump supporters, please; we're not all stupid.
1
Three words: Trump Taj Mahal.
Our great businessman drove that casino into devastating bankruptcy using an over generous credit-line that he'd conned from his bankers. Now he just has a bigger bank and a 'huger' bunch of saps to endorse him.
62
There is no doubt about which party is the party of fiscal responsibility and economic competence, because this budget makes it crystal clear:
It's the Democratic Party.
Republicans have been fiscal frauds and peddlers of economic snake-oil for decades. It's been obvious to many of us who possess rudimentary math skills for just as long, but now the GOP doesn't even pretend.
Buyers of this Republican fiscal fakery (Republican voters) have been conned, duped, shaken down, and taken to the cleaners. And this Trumpublican budget proves that it's only going to get worse.
52
It appears to me that Trump's long history of embracing debt in his private business is being introduced to the federal government. No one has been able to make him understand that he cannot just ruin the government and then declare bankruptcy and walk away to start a new project.
35
Republicans are the party of Capital, the 1%. Why anyone in the 99% expects otherwise is a function of Fox News, scapegoating of immigrants and Muslims as part of a "Make America White Again" platform, incoherent or incremental Democratic strategy, a news media that focuses on personality rather than issues, and the badly educated who are not immunized from propaganda (e.g., unable or unwilling to assemble facts from credible sources in forming their opinions).
White Republicans are willing dupes, as they just want America to be White Again and assume all welfare goes to minorities, or that they will be rich someday and eliminating benefits won't hurt them.
Trump delivered the tax cuts (even though the bottom 80% gets only 35% of the benefit, less after spending cuts) and is trying to Make America White Again. That's enough for 80% of Republicans to continue supporting him.
25
What was the cost of printing however many copies of this budget tome they know won't be enacted?
14
During the primaries, Trump said time and again "he loves the uneducated". Well, here is the result, a President who lied through his teeth about what he planned on doing for working people and if anyone bothered looking into the background and history of this individual who actually spent much of his life "stiffing" dozens of small businesses out of money that did work for him, he thought nothing of it. He could care less about working people and never did, yet, for some reason, his supporters hoped he would be different. He is not and never will be. In order to get their vote, he talked a good game, but, that is all it was , TALK! P. T. Barnum, at his best.
In addition to this fraud as President and considering this budget, despite the democrats serious flaws, outside of the obvious reasons, one continually wonders why anyone would vote for a party that, other than their wealthy friends and donors, Republicans have neither now nor ever had any interest whatsoever of serving those outside out of that small group.
If, for some bizarre reason, American voters have brain cramps again and return Republicans to power in the Congress, rest assured, you can kiss good bye to your social security, medicare and medicaid, guaranteed.
17
He loves the uneducated so much, he wants to create more of them.
3
I'm disappointed. No money allocated for a military parade?!
15
"This is surely not what most of Mr. Trump’s working-class supporters imagined during the primary and general election campaigns."
Of course it is. This is exactly what Trump's minions wanted. They just thought it would happen to the other people, the undeserving, the lazy, the minorities, the immigrants. They got conned, and they're indoctrinated enough they wont believe it's happening to them until it's too late.
43
It is the simplest of cons - the bait and switch. Promise one thing, do another. Politicians of all stripes have been doing it since before Nebuchadnezzar. And since there is no consequence for such outright dishonesty - because people cheer for "their" side blindly, supporting "their" team regardless of how badly they're served by "their" leadership - it will continue to be practiced. No consequence, no restraint.
These people are not voters, they're followers. Manufactured hatred and cultivated fear of the other has blinded them even to their own interests.
21
Will the Trumpistas finally get the message that their "hero" is actually trying to wreck their lives? Of course, not. They're totally uninformed or willfully ignorant, take your choice. #45 can do no wrong in their view, even as they stand evicted from their former homes, watch robots take over their jobs, and can't afford the toll on the road out of town.
18
It sounds like the republican party is making ready for an escape with all the wealth to purchased country or planet.
8
Who is surprised that Trump was lying? When are we going to do something about it?
14
Dementia must be setting in. Trump does not remember his campaign promises he made to his voters. I just hope that they stop believing Fox News reports, the real "Fake News". and come to the realization that Trump is raping the country and their bank accounts with the Tax Reform Bill and now his Infrastructure plan. The only winners in the first year of his time in office are his friends in the 1% class. And I am sure this will be the case for the next 3 years.
8
Please. He had no intention of keeping his "promises.'' What he is doing now is what he intended to do all along
2
The Repulsive Party have arrived at the moment they've salivated over for years: further enriching their uber-wealthy donors while sticking it to the the middle and working class, and the under-served, and dismantling our safety nets and retirement assistance. In their eyes, of course, we're lazy takers (not the banks, agribusiness, tech industry, or oil/gas industries with their subsidies, tax shelters and tax windfalls, oh no) and now we'll be made to pay for our despicable transgressions.
They're jubilantly on their merry, destructive way in finally destroying the peasants, the environment, our planet, our regulatory protections, our democracy, our media, our justice system and our country.
The Champagne corks must be popping at the offices of Republicans, the Koch Bros, and their craven, vile overly wealthy brethren.
15
If you want food, health care, and housing, join the military.
17
Yes, I'm glad I spent 26 years in the military. I've deliberately not included Social Security and Medicare in my financial planning and have been building a separate account to cover that. Hopefully they won't also cut military pensions and medical benefits. The military definitely helped get me from the bottom 20% to close to the top 1%. You won't get rich in the military itself but it can give you the skills to get rich later especially if you are frugal with your spending/savings while in the military. This budget and administration is scary!
3
Now there is ambition - strive to become cannon fodder....
1
This statement in the editorial says it all: "...amount to one of the greatest transfers of wealth from the poor to the rich in generations."
That's all Trump has ever been about.
Too bad so many people got bamboozled by him, but you know, it takes a few minutes to read a newspaper...
19
Mr. Trump's budget proposal is but another item on a very long list of jaw-dropping proposals by this rogue president. Are we proving to ourselves and the world that the United States has no protection against such a threat to the country? The lacerations Trump has already inflicted on funds available to the un-wealthy have been tough. This budget proposal could be a death blow to many. Though it may sound harsh, I venture that Trump and his party are now a national security threat.
14
It's not a military parade that Trump wants.
It's an ticker tape parade. Defense contractors and billionaires can march proudly down 5th Avenue in NYC while Trump and the Republican Congress throw fistfuls of money into the air for them all to catch! Look at them scurry! No decorum here!
The police can be on hand to arrest any ordinary citizen or worse yet poor person who dares to grasp for some of the largess.
It's a glorious day in the republic.
8
Charity is not a function of the federal government. Fortunately it's a free country. Those so worried about poor people can give as much as they like to charities. But the taxayers should not be forced to support the lazy and irresponsible.
3
Reader In Wash DC: hard to imagine anyone lazier and more irresponsible than Mr. Trump. And with the tax cuts & this budget, he rakes it in hand over fist ....
1
But charity for the rich is OK?
4
How about the unfortunate, the sick, the handicapped - mentally or otherwise, the ambitious ones trying to better themselves but are down on our luck. There are so many good reasons For the government to help people in need. Besides it being the right thing to do - and in a land which claims by some to exceptional and chosen by God - it’s something that must be done, it is also good business. In the long run to help out when people need it, makes them self sufficient and tax paying citizens .
4
Everyone seems to forget that the chosen outlet by the trump base and regular Republican is FOX. The reason trumps base stays so loyal is because they have no clue what is really going on. FOX does not tell them what is really going on.
13
A man who bankrupts his businesses, runs fake universities, avoids taxes “because he’s smart” and stiffs hardworking contractors. Are we at all surprised he would propose anything different?
10
With this budget, Trump and his white-nationalist minions are declaring war on the 99% of Americans who still believe in democracy that involves government programs their money supports. He and his corrupt billionaire GOP may have sold out America to unsavory Russian and oligarchic factions and lazy corporate lobbyists for polluters. as well as to violent pornographers in the weapons industry, but the Times, and the American people, are still free to reject their traitorous deals and question their legitimacy, and, of course, we are all free to vote them out and stop supporting their degrading companies, most of which underpay its workers and force them into untenable choices.
4
So the president will starve the poor to save starving millionaires. Forget MAGA. Trumpf tour 2018: Make the Great Depression Again.
7
The chickens are coming home to roost. The sheer hypocrisy of the Republicans, and Trump's vicious evil, total lack of compassion, and constant targeting of science, education, social science and the humanities is appalling and at root what the man and his party stands for. They are like the zombie corpse of the 20th century, trying to crawl out of the grave and take over the 21st century. With all of your help...by voting, by protesting, by speaking up and fighting these evil, egotistical, self-serving miscreants, we can take back our gov't in November, 2018. The damage will take many years to correct, but at least we can prevent it from going further after November, 2018.
8
The Democrat version of "sticking up for the working people" is to stick them with tax increases. Since when has any president lived up to their campaign promises in this regard? It's only Republicans who say anything necessary to get elected? Sure NY Times, sure.
3
Under which Democratic administration were your federal income taxes raised? Unless you make over $200,000, your taxes haven't gone up since Reagan. You're paying higher social security taxes, also because of Reagan.
Each tiny tax cut you've seen, unless you make over $200,000, has been accompanied by giant tax cuts for the wealthy. The most recent change is literally worth millions to Trump himself. That is why we now have a $1 trillion annual deficit.
Democrats promote policies, such as Obamacare, that help the poor and lower middle class. They could and should do more. But sticking it to the little guy? Not supported by the facts.
1
Trump does not care one whit about his "base," or any ordinary, working American families. One, because he mainly cares about himself and some (not all) of his immediate family. Two, he considers anyone who wasn't born into wealth like him to be a "loser." I know many Trump supporters. Guess what? They're all relatively rich. They like to complain that they don't "feel rich," but they have elegant homes, many have second homes in resort areas, they hire caterers and dishwashers for their Christmas parties, they send their kids to private schools, they go on European vacations (not the kind where you stay in a hostel).
2
You expect more from a man whose life work is filled with bankruptcies and massive debt?
15
Please, please write about the proposed elimination of Public Broadcasting! If I go to France, I can watch wonderful news and other topics on several public stations. I can go to libraries and museums supported and even coordinated with public funds. Music, dance, theater ... so much, but we are pushed into deeper ignorance by the ignorant president. I suppose that, if he cannot outlaw the Times and NBC, the president can eliminate the news coverage on PBS and NPR. PBS is nearly gone anyway due to lack of funds -- we living in rural areas depended on it for years as a cultural resource.
18
If anyone is at all shocked that DJT is not upholding his promise to not to cut Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security, I have a beautiful bridge that they can buy. With States unable to pay for the his infrastructure bill, the bridge does need some work, but she's a grand old lady. Unfortuntely, because she is old, he'll probably put a cap on how much can be used to upgrade her.
6
The phrase, "Bait and Switch" comes to mind. A concept that should be quite familiar to any accomplished Con Man, no doubt.
8
This budget shows what a bunch of grifters Trump and the Republican party are. Save for his promise to spend more on the military, everything in the budget is the polar opposite of what this huckster promised during the campaign. His promise not to cut Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security - out the window. His promise to balance the budget - gone. His promise to drain the swamp - just look at his cabinet.
If the Trump voters don't wake up soon the US is going to devolve into a feudal society that will mirror England pre Magna Carta.
13
It's not enough to go on social media to complain about this president and Congress (though I do that plenty). November is calling. We must vote every Republican out of office. Only then can we begin to hold Trump accountable.
And we must get on the phones and on to the buses into red-state America and speak individually to Trump supporters. The responsibility of rolling back this horrible transfer of wealth lies squarely on our shoulders.
8
And you will fail at this.
Why? because you squandered the opportunity of a lifetime, in order to support illegal aliens and dreamers over your fellow American citizens.
We know it, and we heard you, and we will vote accordingly.
1
Republicans are fond of comparing the economy to a household.
In this house we borrow all that we can to give to our wealthy neighbors then we go out and buy a new house and car with our lottery winnings.
And when we die we give the bill to our children just like the old days when parents indentured their children to pay their debts.
3
"But presidential budgets are statements of principles" - exactly. DT proves again that he has none. He and his administration and the GOP cater to the 1% ONLY.
4
I think the idea is that when older people get sick or lose their jobs, instead of Medicare or Social Security, they can apply for bonuses from pass-through corporations.
5
What is really scary is that a man like Donald Trump, who knows nothing about budgets, legislation, government programs and has never shown any interest in public service, should have any input on restructuring or changing long standing government programs.
Donald Trump was a real estate guy in New York who was set up by his father, a pariah to the New York business community and banks due to his unethical practices, and presided over 4 bankruptcies, would ever be allowed to disassemble our government or economy.
Donald Trump doesn't have a clue to what he is doing or the ramifications of some of his more amateurish ideas and the long term damage that can be done.
10
Take a look at how the budget affects and benefits people like Trump, the wealthy, the developers, the users and abusers, and you will see that the budget does make sense --- for them.
They do what's best for themselves and stick the rest of us with the bill.
What exactly is not fair?
3
As long as he continues to evoke hatred and derision toward their enemies, Trump's base will give him a pass on actual policy.
9
Trump's working people think they are above food stamp people, do not put themselves in the same class. They rely on help from family and churches, or they see no connection between the fake disability checks they receive and the link cards others receive. They are also happy when Trump insults people, as long as he doesn't insult them, which he doesn't.
So he can pull all the social spending he wants, as long as it doesn't appear to be their social program. When they find out their free money is gone, they won't blame Trump, they will blame democrats for trying to obstruct Trump with Russia, fake news, metoo, etc.
This is illogical, but that's what it is.
4
Welcome to Tax Cuts For the Rich and Famous, Part Two. As predicted by the Times, Republicans will now claim that our revenue-starved government lacks the funds to operate as intended to protect the interests and well-being of the nation it serves or its people.
3
It more frustrating to notice that many in American policy making and in military still do not understand that mere military strength can never win a war even against the poorest of poor and least technologically equipped enemies abroad. Our long wars in the past (in Vietnam) and present (in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria) failed to make these people understand this simple truth.
Probably they do not care- either about the lives of common American people in the country or in the foreign land fighting wars for America. They seem to be either ignorant (who can does not have the ability to process information and understand even the simplest truth) or motivated by greed by supporting lobbyists of military industrial complex- probably both.
2
Democracy fails when the electorate is too intellectually lazy to make an educated vote. In the US today too many voters have chosen to decide on simplistic sound bites to make decisions. I am sure they are the same citizens who are "asking their doctors" about the barrage of medicines advertised endlessly on TV. Most people don't even realize that not so long ago, before George Bush's gift to the pharmacy industry, there were very few drug ads. When he added drug coverage to Medicare, he did it so that the drug companies could charge whatever they wanted without having to bid for the privilege. That is why drugs in America are so much more expensive than in Canada etc. Cry The Beloved Country is the US today. What sane person today can look at the North and South Poles and say there is no global warming? Most voters could not give you a definition of fascism even though they are living in a country which is about to be the definition of fascism.
3
But as long as he says he’s not cutting services and Fox News repeats that he’s not cutting services, he can do as much cutting as he wants. I’m sure his supporters will blame Democrats.
9
Character is presented by what you do, not what you say. The resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will say anything to satisfy his base. The caveat is what he does to satisfy the Koch/Mercer/Republican cabal. How can anyone who has a shred of objectivity be surprised by this budget? A small group of Americans were duped by this carnival barker who invited them into his tent with the promise of giving them something they had never seen before. To paraphrase Hunter Thompson, they bought the ticket and now every one of us is taking the ride. Americans will get to buy a new ticket on November 6, 2018. Vote as if your country depended on it. This time, it really does.
4
Here are ways that will NOT create any deal worth truly having with the Republicans and the crew in the White House masquerading as an “administration.”
Impassioned appeals to ethics. Proclamations for social and economic justice. Intellectual arguments based on relatively straightforward math, tax and other revenue, trade pacts, and so on. Sustained, honorable, deep-dive debates about the maintenance of empire, the true nature of capitalism or social engineering, the virtues of government as a business or corporate enterprise vis a vis a public service. Compassion. Equality, progress and the honoring of commitments as essential components of citizenship participation. Truth, justice, the American way. Get r-e-a-l.
It’s not possible to deal in any such ways with a voracious, venal, blinded-by-cynicism, self-important, pathological beast of a party that has been pod-peopled out of a principled existence. It cannot explain itself by any of the principles it espouses: not deficit hawkery, not appeals to the working and middle class, not as captains of our economic ship. It cannot even explain how it will explain. Empty rhetoric and suits all.
In November, people, you simply have to vote. In massive numbers. 52% or whatever bare-majority vote? That’s pathetic. That’s irresponsible, an invitation for them to rob us blind. Try 72. 82. The vote is the one item, thing, measure, resort, option, appeal and mandate remaining. Hurry up, they’re trying to take that too.
6
How is this playing at Fox and Friends? Are they gushing over the cuts? That is where Trump goes to see how his "ratings" are.
Sadly, I do not trust the Democratic "leadership" to be able to turn this into a clear message before the mid-term election. I trust Bernie and Warren to carry most of the water for the whole left in this country, but few others. Schumer will fixate on some tiny corner of it that might hurt New Yorkers, like a local tax hike to pay for infrastructure. It is FRUSTRATING to watch him look for dust in corners when there is a huge opportunity staring him in the face.
Folks, make sure your crazy uncle understands what this budget is about. It is up to us to educate people around us who are getting a steady diet of lies.
2
Fox is saying there are no real cuts, and are hyping the few increases in services.
Fakest of news, but that's all his supporters see and want to see.
There’s no working class disillusion with Trump’s economic policies. Their votes were based on rage, not budgets. When this blows up, Trump or another republican will find a way to channel the rage in their favor. That’s how wicked they are.
3
The Liar in Chief as usual had no intention of keeping any campaign promise to the common person. I just wish those who still support Trump will get that...when is the question. When they go to the emergency room and told their Medicare won't cover the visit? When they see the changes in tax laws result in more taxes paid by them? When they decide to take a cross country trip to see our great land only to have toll roads at every turn?
Trump's proposals take more away from the common person and give it to such deserving entities as the bloated military...When will you Trump supporters wake up in Lotus Land?
4
Trump, his family, his cabinet and his budget are all jokes and he wants to see just how far he can push the American people. It's so beyond obvious now that Trump never should have been elected president. Most everyone is in agreement, but for those who are not, they need to head over to Russia because that's the ideal example for the U.S. according to Trump. I'd like to say we'd miss them, but I can't. Trump and his family need to vacate the White House forthwith and we need to get our respect back and return this country to the great leader status that it once held in the world.
3
If presidential budgets are statements of principle, this one proves yet again that Trump has no principles other than self-aggrandizement and self-enrichment. It's a safe bet that he has not read his budget, maybe got an oral briefing -- maybe not -- while allowing Mulvaney and his Tea Party pals to break yet another of his campaign promises. Remember "I will not cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid?" Putin must be laughing his head off as Trump continues to destroy our democracy and our economy while a tame Republican-led Congress does nothing to stop him. Will the GOP only be satisfied when millions of Americans are mired in ill health and poverty without a social safety net to save them?
2
We must elect public servants who will enact policies that promote the common good. This pendulum swing of power among political parties who have opposing interests and narrow constituencies seems untenable as a long-term governing model, especially if extreme and corrupt elements are going to prevail, as they have with Trump. In 2016 and since, the Republican party allowed a culturally regressive fervor to carry the election away from its avowed principles and toward a cult of personality. They have thrown their lot in with a charlatan (and worse), and willingly become more tightly bound to him every day. No one can plausibly argue that this is a good direction for the country as a whole. We must uncouple that negative fervor—and the ignorance and incompetence it brings—from the process of electing representatives and running the government. Far too much is at stake. In our daily lives, we recognize our duty to care for and protect the people we love and depend on. We do what's right for them. We need representatives who can apply that positive zeal and dedication on a broader level on behalf of strangers, with intelligence, competence, reason and character. The system should be based on idealism tempered with practicality, not cynicism and greed. A good start would be to get money out of politics, and put knowledge and sound ideas back in.
1
To do this you need a system that doesn’t reward those who can cultivate donors with deep pockets. A good start would be a law to male it clear that corporations are not people.
NOW will all the people who believed Trump’s lies about standing up for the forgotten working class and making America great for them again see how badly they’ve been had? Most of us saw through this ruse from Day One, and knew what was coming.
But I’m also disgusted with a Democratic Party that basically marginalized this core constituency by ignoring them for decades. No wonder they turned to a rainmaker like Donald Trump, when the party that championed their cause since the Depression left them high and dry.
As far as I’m concerned, there is enough blame to go around for this situation. It isn’t all on Trump for where we are economically or socially. Trump just shamelessly and cynically took advantage of this divide for his own ends, and we’ll all have to deal with the results.
1
Once again, this Philistine administration has completely cut public funding for PBS and the Arts from the budget. As financially failing organizations like the Metropolitan Opera will tell you, there is not enough money to go around from wealthy donors to complete their mission. Many organizations which show and support the broad the patchwork of creative America will close if Congress de-funds the arts. Further, putting the onus on the states after decreasing taxes at the Federal level to handle this support is ludicrous at best. States that contain the majority of the most important arts organizations in this Country happen to be the in the highest taxed states in the County. Truly ignorance is this administrations bliss.
2
It boggles the mind that Trump actually ran a business empire.
3
Billionaires bilking America would be a more apt title for this budget. Russian style privatization to create a permanent oligarchy. Crushing debt to disable a federal government whose role, besides national security, also provides the only line of defense between us, the little people, and them, the power of vast wealth and corporate reach.
As brazen and blatant as it is, this heist is being promoted as pragmatic, business based government. Democrats need a latter day Paul Revere to sound the alarm in the hinterland, where authoritarianism and false hopes have lulled our fellow citizens into complacency.
1
You know exactly what is going on. Trump and the Republicans are deliberately creating a "fiscal crisis" so that they can cut Social Security, Medicare, college financial aid, and otherwise gut the protections for working class and middle class stability in life.
Trump and his new Republican friends are also planning to privatize massive amounts of infrastructure with subsidies to the private sector during the handover.
The working class people who elected Trump were absolutely fooled (you will miss Steve Bannon, as I warned), and class war of the most vicious sort has just intensified and become entirely obvious.
We got ourselves a Pinochet.
4
The best way to get out of a hole is to stop digging. Presumably, the White House is out to further destroy America and this joke budget will require Congress to act as though they care about the others, the 99%. Deficit consideration continue to be swept aside at the expense of all of us.
Make America poor.
2
Why should we be surprised considering that his business approach has been to get the most for the least. His history of defaults and bankruptcy are legendary.
It's about time that middle America, the "working stiffs" that support him get the message that Trump will say anything for self-glorification but are substance free,
10
At this stage of the game, I can't imagine anyone woman or person over 50, ever voting Republican again.
NYT - it looks like the federal government is betting on states to take on a lot of costs go forward - healthcare, infrastructure, etc. Can we get some articles showing what shape states are in financially? Also, what kind of tax incentives are / were being paid for companies to built in their state .ie..new Toyota / Mazda plant, Foxconn in Wisconsin.
15
Those that I know who voted for trump did so in a large part because they were concerned about what they saw as a growing "Welfare State" that was supporting the "Lazy" and "illegals". I suspect they feel fine with the proposed budget. Time will tell how they will feel when it effects them through Medicare cuts and most likely Social Security cuts down the road
7
The GOP has long embraced the meme of its supporters being "worthy" while everybody else was "unworthy". It is not surprising that they are using their clout and influence to "punish" the "unworthy" in order to make their supporters feel superior.
1
I don't care what is in the budget, so long it gets people good and mad at illegal aliens stealing our tax dollars and jobs -- until they are mad enough to deport every single illegal alien from our nation.
1
Here's some reality for you: Illegals do not get welfare. Go and check your state's website and you will see the first requirement is: Proof of citizenship!
Secondly, we cannot afford to "deport every single illegal alien". Do the math. If we deported 1,000 a day, it would take over 30 years to deport them all. Last summer, a deportation of about a dozen of them cost taxpayers $985 each--and that was from Dallas to the southern border.
Now multiply that--or more--by 11 million.
1
The word that comes to mind when I look at this budget is feudalism. The
0.1% will own everything and "defend" the rest of us as long as we pledge our fealty and know our place.
14
"But presidential budgets are statements of principles " In order for this statement to be accurate the president would have to have some modicum or semblance of principles. Trump does not.
7
Of course many of us who did not vote for this man are not surprised. We recognize his military zealotry replaces compassion for those less fortunate OR for those who have worked for years contributing to social security and medicare and now rightfully expect to benefit from the promises of these programs.
What does continue to surprise us is the zealous support he still enjoys from the very people that benefit from the programs destined for drastic cuts in this WH-proposed budgets. Food boxes instead of food stamps. Loss of health insurance.
What do they see that we don't in this man?
7
Anybody know where I can get a copy of this to read myself? I'm not really big on reading it online. I could use a good laugh, though I have a feeling it'll drive me to drink, and I haven't had a drop since Valentine's Day, 2013 when I was diagnosed with cancer.
1
The Editorial Board missed the subtlety of Trump's remarks. He didn't say he was going to be "sticking up" for working people, he said he was going to be "sticking it" to working people.
17
You mistook him. He said he would "stick it to" workers. He is right: anyone who believed him gets what they deserved. Alternatively, sufficiently few believed his opponent whose positions changed faster than the weather, so had she won anything would be true - or untrue.
7
Trump says the military is completely depleted. I have yet to hear any details about this statement. In what ways is it so completely depleted? Or am I just to take his word on that?
10
NPR has been using the "military is completely depleted" quote/lie (and the follow-up about having a military like we've never had before! Really? WWII comes to mind about that, but, as Krugman writes, "whatever". I really question why they play that quote. Merely because the "president" said it? Trump supporters (how many listen to NPR, oh, sorry, that was elitist to even ask, wasn't it? But Fox is probably playing that on a loop.) will hear that and agree that increasing the military budget (while cutting other important items they rely on) as good and necessary. It's come to this: he has a platform (or is that a review stand?) and can say anything, just anything and it is treated at least quote-worthy.
It's not "depleted", but why do people give the GOP a pass on this topic because it was their idea to have a Sequester program to begin with?
Republican mega donors will save enough in one year from the Trump tax cut to cover their family's healthcare for a lifetime. Poor and middle-class tax payers will not save enough in taxes to pay for one percent of the benefits they will lose under this budget.
290
Windrip,
When your out of a job in a Factory & no one seems to give a dam, you start looking for a savior, & along comes Trump who promises their Jobs back, claiming to be the master negotiator. You forget that he is one of the 1%, and you're sold on this despotic con man.A year has passed & your job has not returned from China, nor will it ever. Manufacturers do not want to increase their labor costs, they are in competition with Asia who produces & sells products below their costs, so they joined them, so they can stay in business. The Master Negotiator cannot & will not do anything to interfere with big business, who fills the Republican coffers with big bucks. you were taken for a ride. If you think you had problems before you helped elect him, wait until you lose Medicaid, & other entitlements that will be cut to pay for increasing the wealth of the 1%.Wake up it's not too late to turn the tables on the 1% & the President that you helped elect. We can remove the Con Mans mandate in the midterm elections, but you have to get out and vote.Let's send him & his party to the dustbins of History, there is still hope.
1
Very disingenuous op-ed.. Taken together with the historic Trump tax reform, this budget supports all Americans. Most Americans will receive more money in the paychecks and with the doubling of the standard deduction will have their taxable income lowered significantly. This budget includes significant dollars for rural Americans, to provide training opportunities, and access to broadband internet. On NPR yesterday evening, President Trump stated that rural America will no longer be neglected as it has been for so long. Under President Trump, the scion of New York, like it or not, rural American culture will no longer be ridiculed and maligned by establishment urban elites. More importantly this budget ensures the safety of all Americans with increases in defense spending, increases needed to restore American military might, to make American the greatest military force in history. Liberals forget that twice in the previous century America came to the rescue of the world in its battle against evil, fought back totalitarianism, and brought down communism by the end of the century. Now more than ever, the American military needs to be as strong as ever to destroy terrorism and discourage North Korean aggression. Moreover, money is needed to secure the southern border, and stop the flow of illegal immigration, and promote legal entry into the United States. No, this is not a nasty budget, it is a great budget. I support the President. I support Trump. Thank you.
2
What wars have we won since WWII? It was capitalism that brought down Communism. It has been strategic alliances and shrewd negotiating that has kept the peace since. China will soon overtake us economically with a defense budget 1/3rd of ours.
5
rural america is getting cuts in a lot of the services they need. You love for the tax reform has nothing to do with this budget (and most people may see a little increase in their paychecks now, but not in a few years, when the deficit is out of control).
As for military - we already spend more than all other countries combined. Our military is plenty strong. Money is needed to help the people Trump said he would. This does no such thing.
3
Virtually nobody I know will benefit from the tax cut, and nowhere can we find believable evidence that the military is not, still, the most powerful force on the planet. However, happily, the Constitution guarantees us our freedom of speech, so the comments above are within the correspondent's right to say or write. However, one hope that once the terrible cuts come in to decimate public education (for his children or grandchildren), for Medicare or Social Security (for himself, for his parents), for social and health services for the poor (possibly for himself and his family given where he says he hails from), he can find the moral fiber to acknowledge what his "support" for Trump has done to the country -- and the evident delight he takes in knowing how much harm the rest of us will suffer. Perhaps we might even hope for a change of heart.
The country, and most of our states and cities, are broke. We’ve been doing the equivalent of using credit cards to pay down other credit cards for decades. There has to be a limit to how long that can go on, and I think we’re sliding down the mountain of “up close and personal” at a pace that will end in an inevitable crash, maybe even in my lifetime (I’m 60, with cancer that’s just biding its time at the moment). But instead of “manning up”, realizing that there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and electing people who will raise the necessary revenue through new taxes and fix the problems, we have elected a guy who is picking our pockets, tossing our wallets to those who have no need for our money, and stabbing us in the back; all while the most delusional among us are screaming hysterically in delight, and the weakest are becoming addicts or committing suicide. This is what has become of “the land of the free and the home of the brave”.
333
The irony in this is that the people who this budget hurts still believe in him.
18
The budget is your typical Republican slight of hand. The Republican Congress passed a a massive tax cut for the wealthy and corporations of 1.5 trillion and now we hear that our infrastructure needs at least 1.5 trillion dollars of repairs. Nothing could be more cynical than this. Now the Trump Administration and the GOP Congress want to shift the burden to states and localities. Good luck with that! Now the very small tax cut for working people provided in the new tax bill will be taken away, and then some, to help pay for infrastructure repair. This puts the states in a terrible place. If they raise taxes on businesses the businesses will threaten to move to another state that cares little for infrastructure repair only compounding the problem. Infrastructure benefits the whole country and should be paid for by the federal government. Maybe the Republicans can rescind their tax cut and use the money for infrastructure repairs. I hope you can hear me laughing.
6
I think you mean “sleight” of hand. But then again, it is amazing how they are playing with such a slight hand and yet persuading the people who are hit the hardest to stick with them.
There are approximately 37 millions members of AARP (American Association of Retired Persons). Not a peep from that organization's leadership nor their lobbyists in confronting Trump's lies being "the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid" and his promise to “save Social Security and Medicare without cuts.” The only aspect that is more nauseating than his lies are his proposed "nasty budget".
15
An abridged & budget review of the 2019 Budget:
INCREASES:
Military Budget Up 14.1%
Budget Deficit Up $7,000,000,000,000.00 ($7 Trillion)
DECREASES:
Peace & Diplomacy Down 26.9%
Health & Human Services Down 20.3%
Department of Education Down 10.5%
Department of Transport Down 20%
Housing, Medicare, Medicaid, State Funding Grants, Food Stamps,Consumer Protection, Environment, Work Safety, Health Insurance, Science, Research...all DOWN.
Probable Outcome if initiated:
More Americans becoming Poor, Hungry and Sick.
Bottom Line: (These following things are already happening...the 2019 Budget just confirms, cements and increases them further.)
Greatest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in Generations.
Greatest increase in American Inequality in Generations.
Greatest increase in American Poverty in Generations.
This is the Budget of the Richest Country in the World...why has it failed to fund so much, that's so needed, that serves so many?
This Budget could never make America Great when it ensures so much and so many lose what was already had and which was far from ideal to begin with.
At least the very Rich get Richer...they still have the most to gain despite earning the most and gaining the most every time American Politicians decide they deserve even more, each and every time they are paid to decide these things.
13
What does this administration have against people who need healthcare?
Do they think people actually love having diseases and health issues that need treatment and care?
First it was the Affordable Care Act. They went after people who actually wanted to be self employed, for example, so they had no employer based healthcare insurance.
Now it is Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security.
Do they really think being a senior and having body parts that do not respond as a twenty year old’s is a sin, one that should be disregarded for care?
What about people who have chronic disabilities that take years to “prove”that they cannot work, multiple sclerosis, for example. Ok, all you phony multiple sclerosis people who have no balance anymore and love getting Paul Ryan’s “entitlements” raise your hand!
I’ve seen a lot of crazy stuff in my 50+ years of healthcare. I’ve worked with hundreds and hundreds of families. I’ve driven in the rural trenches to make public health visits, and worked with trauma physicians in an ER. I’ve written many an insurance recommendation for insurance members as an RN Case Manager, begging for approval of those afflicted with Lyme’s, seizure disorders, quadriplegics, oncological treatment.
But as much as I’ve advocated, I cannot even in retirement, hold back my political yearning for fair and justice healthcare, whether commercial or Medicare, or Medicaid.
I tell you, people do not want to be sick - and they still need care.
Help!
13
The plan of this budget is pretty transparent: Once the old and the poor die from lack of health care, food and housing the need for many of the government programs serving these people becomes redundant. It's a self-fulfilling arrangement. Also, the infrastructure related to public transportation will go away in large part --- no need for mass transit with so many fewer old/poor people riding the buses and subways --- along with the need for clean air and water, especially in places like Flint and other low income areas, which in turn explains the reductions to the EPA. With fewer poor people reproducing there will be fewer poor children, so that takes care of the CHIPS program, and the cuts to education would be just about right.
The military buildup will be necessary in order to overrun China and most of the Middle East in a land and resource grab to pay for the deficits this budget will incur.
All in all, I'd say Donald Trump and his henchmen have crafted exactly the kind of budget one would expect. Not a single surprise to be found.
180
All that's left to do is eat the poor!
1
What is a democratic government for if not to work in the best interests of her people? All people, not just a chosen few who have bought or stolen their way to the top.
14
And just what actions are in the best interests of the people? Free world democracies generally operate on capitalistic principles with governments providing some essential services and a safety net of some kind. Within this broad formula there are many options ranging from highly socialistic to highly capitalistic. Generally the more socialistic the system the more protection and safety for " the people", the more capitalistic the system the more opportunity for prosperity for "the people". Where a country should slot itself in the spectrum of possibilities to maximize the common good is a point on which reasonable people may differ of course, and persons holding different points of view can certainly challenge each other's motives, and characterize each other as uncaring or racist or greedy or elitist or favoring the rich, or lazy or looking for handouts, etc., and no doubt there are those who are are one or more of those things disguising themselves as seekers of the common good. So what is Donald Trump? Not sure.
The 2019 budget is of course appalling. However, most Trump supporters knew, or certainly could and thus should have known, what they were ultimately voting for. It was no great secret. They got what they evidently wanted, however odd self-inflicted pain might seem to the rest of us.
So, although we might lament the incredible destructive and amoral impetus behind these proposals, we owe little sympathy toward those who put him in power and now may suffer as a consequence. Perhaps if they got out to vote this November and returned the Senate and House to Democratic control, we could then hope for respite from the looming harm to the poor, the elderly, the sick, and the undereducated.
Don’t bet the back 40 acres on it, however!!
9
Is anyone even remotely surprised by this budget? Although the unemployment rate is down, there are more people working for wages that do not cover cost of living, particularly in the NY/NJ/CT area and in California. Moreover, nationwide, employed or not a vast percentage of the national population- even in the red states- exists on some sort of federal supplement, whether it is Food Stamps, Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, housing assistance, heat and utility subsidy, various social services funded through federal money.
8
There are also more people working 2 part-time jobs AND people working as Temps (who do not get 401K plans or employer-assisted healthcare insurance).
1
Mitt Romney said it correctly -- though it was not PC and it ruined his Presidential run -- that almost 50% of Americans are on some form of government check. Now, I consider SS to be different than welfare, because people PAY INTO SS for a lifetime -- but it is still a government check.
If you add all the seniors up, plus the poor, plus the near-poor who get food stamps and expanded Medicaid under Obamacare -- that is a HECK of a lot of people.
No nation can survive, with 1/2 working to support the other half lazing around the house.
2 out of 3 people on SSDI are fraudsters. Start there!
1
Mitt Romney was wrong. In his figures, he included ALL military members and ALL seniors who are retired.
https://www.factcheck.org/2012/09/dependency-and-romneys-47-percenters/
How about we start with people who fail to do any fact checking?
1
it is even more insidious
Cuts in medicare and medicaid will hurt rural medical centers. And rural medical centers are some of the largest employers of these economically stressed regions which supported Trump
Rural voters tend to be more sickly and rely more on these institutions.
Many states don't have the resources to finance large infrastructure projects
Rural red states also have legislative constraints that make it virtually impossible to raise taxes for infrastructure development
Lastly, even if states could raise revenue for infrastructure in the form of property and income taxes......the new federal tax laws would prevent many taxpayers from deducting the increased taxes
So if the Trump succeeds, we will be much closer to third world status in terms of health outcomes, income inequality and overall quality of infrastructure than we even really comprehend
46
Trump wants a roaring economy, tempered by the unwinding of QE and a return to more "normal" interest rates and inflation levels. He wants more favorable trade and infrastructure spending. Out of that he expects people to find employment and opportunity. He wants prosperity, achieved through capitalism, increasing taxes collected with lower rates of tax, reducing the need for social services.
Why should state and local taxes be deductible in computing federal tax liability? Certainly they are not in Canada, except for local property taxes paid by a business.
Private investment for public infrastructure projects will be easy to find.
America is not Sweden. Perhaps what Trump and the Republicans want will not work, but ideologically it is not unreasonable to hold the belief that the highest common good will be achieved by adhering to capitalist principles with a shallow social net and relying on entrepreneurial spirit.
1
"[I]ncreasing taxes collected with lower rates of tax."
That has been tried over and over. Hasn't worked yet. What was the cliche about the definition of insanity?
7
You're Canadian so you may not have witnessed some of the myriad public-private infrastructure partnerships in the US.
Outside DC, a toll road was put up by an Australian firm that stands to earn revenue for 50+ years for the up-front investment. Let me tell how that is working --
No one takes the toll roads. They can't afford the $5 toll, so they bypass it by jumping onto the small, local, winding roads that were laid out in the 18th and 19th centuries.
4
The problem with your logic is that, while it looks conveniently sound philosophically, it has never worked across the spectrum of the populace, economically, socially, or culturally. It's a pipedream whose time is past...capitalism is not designed to augment the turbulence of social change, it requires adherence to a rigid social order that places competition over justice, greed over compassion, and power over connection. Always has, always will...it's place is behind a social structure that cares for EVERY American...not just those we approve of. Christians should tell you that this is their path, but they, too, have bought into the passive morality of capitalism. The hypocrisy borne out of economic greed and power-grabbing in a hyper-competitive, under-regulated culture has been proven in the history of this country over and over and over again...the ability of those at the top of the financial food chain to commit crimes against the average citizen with impunity AND rewards is nauseating. Justifying those freeloaders while condemning families on food stamps will be part of legacy whether we care to accept it or not...but we can stop it, if we want to bad enough. IF....
1
Okay let's please refocus media attention to the damage being wrought on the country, on the middle, professional and working classes, on the withering of infrastructure while gearing up for WWIII and STOP talking about the Russia investigation 98% of the media time. In four short years, this yahoo in chief can seriously damage the environment, set back social progress 50 years, reverse woman and minority rights, have a religious takeover of education, appoint judges to limit voting rights, kill immigration, devastate mixed immigrant/citizen families, not to mention explode the deficit and debt to reward big business and the millionaire/billionaire class with even more wealth than they can effectively impact our economy in any way, while most average Americans sink to third world poverty levels subject to the whims of their rich overlords.
152
@Mary: Yes- Russia is wearing; but- without Russia, there would be no Trump in the White House. The Russia investigation is a necessary evil. Not talking about it- is exactly what this administration wants. Media will just have to be diligent in focusing on all of this.
7
No, do not forget the Russia investigation. trump is in bed with Putin. The demise of America and it's institutions works out very well for Putin. And for trump! Full speed ahead for Mueller's investigation, and aggressive prosecution of provable criminal acts committed by American administration officials.
5
“We” can walk and chew gum at the same time, Mary. It is incumbent on us to pay close attention to the damage being inflicted by this administration, as reported by reputable sources, and to be active citizens registering our dismay. It is also incumbent on us to insist that all efforts be deployed to both understand how a hostile foreign power interfered in a presidential election and to prevent it from happening again. As for the latter, see today's headline: “Russia Sees Midterm Elections as Chance to Sow Fresh Discord, Intelligence Chiefs Warn.”
5
While this budget will not stand as is, it does set the tone for what will be the budget. Some of the egregiousness will be removed, but not all of it. Social programs will suffer cuts but the Administration will be insulated from the wrath of participants who will be denied benefits. That wrath will be wreaked upon those who administer such programs at the State and local level. The worker delivering the bad news will be held responsible - not the perpetrator of the action.
30
The leaders of an organization seldom face the wrath of people whom their decisions affect. That's why they have front-line individual contributors and managers. In a company, the HR people who lay you off face the consequences of decisions made by the board of directors and the CEO.
That's how hierarchial systems work.
Being one of those HR persons, I know full well of what you say. I also was a locally-elected person who got full force of angry people feeling the effects of 'trickle down' decisions by federal and State government decisions read: Unfunded mandates.
1
There are a number of Trump "speeches", and interviews, where he said that Medicare and Social Security are off the table.So, he is on record as such. Thus, what was released yesterday shows that he is a liar.
We, as Americans, were ingrained with always respect the president. A stable democracy, is only stable, when there is trust in the institutions that govern. Today, there is little or no trust with our three branches of government. And, our so called "president" has only made a bad situation; worse.
25% of thsi country, and a fair amount of the GOP, still trust and have high regard for Trump, and Congress. But, independents (swing voters) and Democrats do not.
Cutting Medicare, which will soon be followed by cutting Social Security, is just plain wrong. It will inflict a great deal of pain. And, the reason for the cuts, is to give dictator Trump his military parade and billions to fight new wars. They are already making a case to invade Iran and North Korea.
Trump is looking more like Putin, Erdogan, Kim Jong-Un and Fidel Castro every day. Complete with rambling speeches, hateful rhetoric and trying to create his own legacy, dynasty.
The voters need to realize that Trump is, and a number of his political allies, are more of a danger to this country than ISIS, Iran, North Korea, the taliban, and Hamas combined. The road to dictatorship, and autocracy, does not come from without, but within.
Hopefully, US citizens see this before it is too late.
315
At least Castro's regime provides free medical care to its citizens (very good at that) and values education.
Our new regime doesn't even try to fake doing what's right for anyone but the upper 1%. But the GOP is banking on (literally) they'll still win -- many Americans will be too ignorant, sick or hungry to show up at the polls to vote the greedy thieves out . . .
5
Indeed, if there is any "deep state" it's sitting in the oval office and being controlled by Putin.
4
At a campaign rally in the run up to election night, Trump told people who were dying that if it were the last thing they did, they should go out and cast a vote for him. Did he care about the fact that they were dying? Yes, that they shouldn't die before they reached the poll.
69
Umm re your question. It was just to get into office and then do what he wants? Just hazarding a guess. It’s probably not true.
5
Just another day at the White House. The Donald will say anything and do nothing. When those who supported him realize they have "been had" will they do something or will they refuse to admit they made a mistake.
Pride and vanity makes it hard for some people to admit mistakes just like Trump.
107
"When those who supported him realize they have 'been had' will they do something or will they refuse to admit they made a mistake."
Well Nance, if past is any indication, they won't ever admit that they've been had, so I'd say that neither eventuality is likely.
1
They watch Fox & Friends so they don't know they have been bamboozled. They think everything is peachy and the rest of us are tools of the deep state.
2
Trumpism is a religion. There is only one political God and Trump is both God and God's prophet. His followers are pleased by his white nationalism and his habit of sticking his finger into the eye of the "intellectual elite" snowflakes who are hated by the "forgotten man" who supports Trump.
Trump provides toxic tweets and feeds the resentment in which his followers wallow. They will not abandon him because he gives them something of more value than economic security: Hate.
2
Nice to see this editorial, but generally, why isn't the media taking hime more to task for the promises he made during the campaign? For instance, he made at least one or more statements that college debt is out of control and that he would make it a priority to make college more affordable. And what has he done on that? NOTHING!!! Meanwhile my kids have to wrack up crushing debt to get educated at the colleges of their choice, and I worry about the burden they will carry for years after graduating. Our nation has really failed our kids on that score.
160
"get educated at the colleges of their choice"
That's the choice, right there. They could have attended the community college for 2 years and transferred to Univ of Washington.
Luxury brand universities cost more because of the cachet.
Committing journalism is a revolutionary — and heroic — act these days, and we’re seeing some of the best journalism since Watergate and Iran Contra.
The free press has been under assault, and journalists endangered, every day since this ogre announced his candidacy. Give reporters a break.
They’re fire investigators but can’t keep up because the GOP is enabling the arsonist.
4
Who said your kids get to go to "the college of their choice"? I get really tired of people in flyover country being told to "move where the jobs are", and then listening to coastal 'pretend liberals' complain about the cost of education or housing.
Ever here of community college? I do. All the time on these very NYT boards. Do your kids attend an in state public college? Or was the college of their choice out of state with the concomitant costs?
I do agree that college costs are ridiculous. We can partially blame ourselves. We allowed corporations to outsource what used to be called "in house training" to colleges and make us pay for it.
Just like we allowed guaranteed pensions to be replaced by wildly fluctuating 401k plans. Just like we cheered at the destruction of unions. Oh, why should some construction worker or UAW member get paid as much as me? I went to college. Karma. It can be a real kick in the package.
2
The important thing here of course is ensuring that billionaires never go hungry or have to want for anything than more of what they desire. We elected an elite and we got an elite with elite ideals that sees no harm in imposing them on the peons. No matter the hardships that will enshrine the peons. As though the peons are already living well beyond what they deserve.
63
I remain astounded that Trump supporters continue to be such when campaign promises are broken over and over again. I guess it's the old story that this will be the case until one or more adversely affects them directly. Well folks, this budget is just that for millions of them.
129
When they are adversely affected, they will find a way to blame the libruls. That's the whole point of the right wing media such as Breitbart and Fox.
3
Not at all. It's Obama's fault.
2
Even when it hurts them directly, they'll blame it on the Democrats, or Obama, or Hillary.
3
Is anyone actually surprised by this budget? From his private sector experience Mr. Trump understands financial bankruptcy. Now he's applying it to the national level.
96
If Trump added so much as a jot or tittle to this Tea Party atrocity that might as well be subtitled 'the last refuge of a scoundrel', this reader would be surprised. Not that Trump wouldn't make it even worse than it is if he could, but because in order to do so he'd have to read it - and there are so many pages, not a one with his name appearing anywhere at all!
3
If Democrats could hammer home this message—that republicans, through congressional economic policy and Trump’s budget, are clearly willing to sacrifice our infrastructure, our people, and our great country in order to line the pockets of billionaires—we would win in a landslide. Sadly, Democrats have never been the party of a coherent message.
97
Could not agree with you more!!!
It is not up to the Democratic Party to save the Nation. It is up to We the People. Whether Democrats have a message or not we must vote for them. Period.
4
And sadly, even with this budget, Trump won't lose a single supporter.
86
He knows that his base doesn't read news. Their right wing news sources are whispering whatever pleases the base.
6
"won't lose a single supporter."...
Exactly. What was it P.T. Barnum said?
4
For decades the Republicans accused Democrats of being the party of tax and spend. This made more sense than being the party of spend and tax the Republicans have actually become. Anyone who runs a household, however meager their budget, understands you can’t perpetually spend more than you take in, and that eliminating your food budget so you can go to the movies results in death. But this is exactly what this budget does, only the deaths will not be experienced equally across the board. Vote no Senators.
23
With this budget, Trump is further paving the way for his post-presidency where he will serve as the Oracle of the Extreme Right. He will, of course, Tweet prolifically and do sound bites from golf carts for Fox and Friends, lobbing bombs at his successors and decrying anything he believes will gain traction with the disaffected. All in a vain attempt to distract from a failed administration and remain relevant. Who knows, maybe the first few interviews will be from behind bars?
16
For 63-millions of American citizens, this draconian measure is the calamitous result of ideological commitment to politicians who have never demonstrated anything like an investment in the American Dream.
It isn’t enough to know that this budget “proposal” will never get by both houses of Congress; few, even on the extreme Right, won’t wish to justify to their constituents this mid-term year that even less healthcare and fewer nutritional and housing vouchers are the way to their bleak futures.
All Donald Trump has done with his uniquely scalding vision of the “American carnage” is unmask himself for all time. His promises never meant anything. He lied to seduce those with little to lose to buy into his bright landscape of substandard schools, unclean air and water, and a 19th Century infrastructure.
Those who have said “hands off my Medicare” are now paying the bill. And Social Security is up next. What? They thought they were getting a “new, great America?”
98
Why aren't Americans screaming for the blood of these robber-barron bankers? The current situation is never going to get better, the compromised Russian asset who leads the United States will never be impeached.
Our Republic has long been lost and a new gilded age is now in full swing. The GOP will suspend free elections or at best be complacent in Russian meddling. If the time for insurrection is not now, then when will it be?
57
I would say now is the time.....why wait? It will only get worse...now is the time to rise up and say NO! means NO! and end this crime spree.
2
"The result would be to greatly increase poverty and hunger in America."
So now it's clear why his slogan was "Making America Great Again". The only thing that has been greater in the past than it is today, is the wealthiest citizens' ability to use the government to pass bills that install the most savage form of capitalism, which is no longer "by and for the people", but only by and for the 1%.
Yes, over time America's ordinary citizens managed to get a little influence in DC too. Now, Trump is trying to take that away again.
Or rather, the GOP establishment, because it has been clear for a long time already that Trump is a very weak president, unable to keep ANY of his campaign promises that was different from what the GOPe has wanted for decades now. He probably hasn't even read his own budget. So if one or the other aide in the White House tells him that it's fabulous and does all he wants, he'll probably blindly believe them and go golfing again.
To Trump supporters here: if you think that I'm wrong, what would your arguments be ... ?
22
MAGA is a two step process. Step 1 is Trump. Step 1 is Destroy America. It will be up to us to do Step 2. America was always great (mostly)
I realize some have been suffering, and some will continue to suffer, and new sufferers will be created. That is the sad part of an imperfect world
2
Funny how they said that the recent tax law,put into effect would permanently lower corporate taxes.If a democrat Congress replaces this one,can they not reverse the cuts?
Of course they can.Will they? No.
4
I wouldn’t call the proposal a Donald Trump budget since he probably didn’t write a word of it and couldn’t tell you what’s in it. Instead, call it what it is: the John Mulvaney budget.
43
That's true, and needs to be kept in perspective.
Obama didn't write any of the budgets from his 8 years in office, and Trump is even LESS involved. He probably has literally NO IDEA what is in the budget.
1
...and Paul "Ayn Rand" Ryan...his life long wish to destroy the USA while lining his own pockets many times over... he is nothing but a paid lackey/boy servant to the Koch Brothers..
1
Also, let's be fair and give Paul Ryan some credit for this absurd cruelty.
He deserves it.
I have a theory. Ryan has Trump by the short hairs. In exchange for not being impeached, Trump signs off on Ryan's dream budget. That on top of giving tax cuts to the rich.
Also maybe Trump sells the airport so he can build his wall.
I can't even.
Once again we see how this president and the RepublicN party play with peoples lives and the principles of this great country; all for their own gain.
All the while these " issues of distraction" mask the real crisis of leadership in this administration reflected by patronage, taking shortcuts with our national security for family and supporters, and embarrassing us in the world stage.
I wonder how long it will take the "Trump Base" to finally realize that they made a huge mistake that will hurt this country for years to come.
14
Someone asked me once what I wanted to be when I grew up.
Without thinking the answer popped right out.
"Puerto Rico!" I shouted.
Guess I got my wish.
7
"Rapacious capitalism" at work. The Gilded Age had nothing on these guys. Will the base that supports Trumps and the kleptocrats finally see the handwriting on the wall? If this doesn't bring them to their senses nothing will. Earlier today David Brooks had a column comparing the "extremes" of political thought present in this country and the west and castigating liberals for "intellectual intolerance". Should liberals be "tolerant"of this budget...one that attempts to destroy the very fabric of our society? Is there even a middle ground in this budget? If this signals the "end of the two party system" then good riddance...to the GOP.
16
"Presidential budgets are statements of principles." That is the problem. Trump has no principles.
36
After I read this editorial I went to Fox News to see what they had to say about the trump budget proposal. After skimming what seemed like tabloid headlines (male escort found dead in dem donors house was the lead) I saw one lone article with a headline about the president seeking cuts to NPR and PBS, which I assume regards the proposal. It would seem many Americans will have no idea that Trump has no problem cutting Medicare and other social programs
76
The sad truth, and what is broken here.
Not just Fox- I watched ABC and there was only coverage of the abusive aids. Had to go to PBS News Hour and NYT to see anything on his evil proposals.
1
The only surprise here is that anyone would be surprised.
Probably would have helped if more scrutiny and skepticism had been directed at Trump during the campaign instead of allowing him to distract with nonsense. Maybe next time.
17
For years, all we heard was "If you like your current policy, you can keep it." Again and again, right wing screamers expressed outrage at Obama's alleged duplicity. I'm not talking about "the usual suspects" like Breitbart or Limbaugh - we heard it all day long on Fox, we heard it from the top Republicans in Congress and in state capitals. There was a huge uproar because some people who were negatively affected by Obama's failure to keep his promise suffered financial damage as a result.
So where are those voices today? "I will not cut Medicare and Medicaid" is a pretty clear and direct promise, which his budget clearly and directly violates. And the people whose financial status will be negatively affected by DT's overt failure to even attempt to keep that promise far outweigh the number of people harmed by the ACA.
So again I ask, where is the outrage?
34
Right, loosing Medicare & Medicaid is certainly more life-changing than not being able to keep your same insurance policy or doctor. The GOP doesn't care about the majority of Americans (don't forget, they get to keep their Gold Level insurance at taxpayers expense!).
3
Shocking! The people may actually go to work and all the Progressive Safety Nets may no longer require huge budgets. Imagine that.
2
Medicare is for retirees who have been working all their lives and paid into the system. Do you suggest that people just work forever?
17
"require huge budgets"
So in your world cutting funding indicates that it is no longer required? How exactly does that work? Please provide the numbers and the sources for those numbers.
11
I think Amtrak should be privatized. It has become a national embarrassment. I don't think more funding is the solution for everything. Cutting cost should be the priority. Using healthcare as an example, the current path is unsustainable. Why NYT only has one solution - more money?! This country is addicted to easy money and cheap labors. Yes, China is wasting money on building under-utilized infrastructures. But US is no better. This country is wasting money on wasteful and inefficient government projects. Therefore, I actually support less funding in order to motivate people to be more creative and efficient. Of course I also believe military is not immune to wasteful spending. Unfortunately, in this country under the influence of GOP, military is wrapped with flag and it can do no wrongs. Sad!
1
You might consider adopting a National Health Service like Britain's--which spent 9.1 % of GDP on health care in 2014, as opposed to the United States' 17.1% (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.TOTL.ZS)--and still covers all British citizens. I think spending on the NHS is too low, resulting in some real shortcomings, but it's hard to dispute that it's value for money.
7
Trump did in deed speak for the downtrodden and forgotten, but Mike Mulvaney makes financial policy, not Trump. Anyway, money might trickle down to them - who knows.
1
Budget Director Mick Mulvaney admitted to the press that he “probably could have made [the budget] balance, but y'all would have rightly just absolutely excoriated us for using funny numbers because it would have taken funny numbers to do it.”
This pretty much defines the incompetence of this so-called administration.
29
A quick tour of conservative sites (Red State, Instapundit, The American Conservative) reveals that conservatives are being told this budget "reduces the deficit by 3 trillion" while RAISING funding for various health, education, and infrastructure agencies. (It doesn't mention that those raises in funding are by derisory amounts.) There WAS a quick admission on one of them that "entitlements cuts will account for $1.7 of the $3 billion, and a complaint on another that NPR was still being funded. But by and large the trumpistas are being told that this is the best of all possible budgets.
And I didn't even check Fox.
We're doomed.
22
There will so much economic growth and "jobs,jobs,jobs" under trump magic and a "wall". Everyone will have so much money jangling in their pockets that there is no need for safety net.
7
This appears to be yet another of Trump’s “ Art of the Deal” moves: start negotiations with a ridiculous low ball, or high ball, offer, insuring that all the ensuing compromises will bring the final deal closer to the initial bid.
1
My biggest fear is that we will become another of Trump's "biggest and most wonderful deals ever seen since the emergence of mankind from the swamp" (though I'm not so certain that some people quite made it, considering ) -- he and his enablers in the "swamp" bankrupt the country, stiff all the lenders, and walk away, and we collapse and become a world wide financial pariah.
8
Trump is apparently dedicated to demonstrating that Government can be run like the private sector--like he ran his real estate empire. Six bankruptcies over a thousand suits, stiffing the working man by not paying contracts and buffoonery --this is how Trump the magnate conducted his private business. It doesn't seem to work as well in the public sector. He is bankrupting the US with a disastrous tax reform and 2 year budget deal. And now he is going to stiff the working folks by cutting back on all of the programs he said he would preserve. But sovereign debt is not easily renegotiated or reneged upon and not even callous, pro rich GoP legislators will countenance his draconian budget cuts.
Add to this the moral and ethical bankruptcy that characterizes both his pre- and post-White House career and life and has infected Republicans and we have a total BANKRUPTCY.
There is only one solution. Let's hope we make it to 2018...
15
The president is picking America's pocket right in front of them with Congressional approval. Paul Ryan is already salivating at the proposed Medicaid, medicare and Social Security cuts. As for slashing food stamps, Ryan would gladly paraphrase Andrew Myrick, a store owner who denied promised food and provisions to Sioux Indians in Minnesota but decided not to, and dismissed their protestations of hunger by saying, "let them eat grass", which precipitated the Sioux Uprising in 1862.
Middle and lower income families have depended on food stamps for decades, as well as other social service programs designed to aid the most needy citizens. The president and Ryan are doing the country a major disservice to people who are far removed from the privileged 1% class of wealthy Americans. These programs aren't handouts, they were established to help Americans in need. Republicans don't seem to care about that anymore.
20
So the Democratic campaign commercials need only be interleaved clips of Trump’s promises with Trump’s actual proposals: the con exposed.
15
The article doesn't mention that the proposed budget, as last year's, would eliminate funding for the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
21
This budget is one very sick joke, but it isn't even remotely funny. It penalizes the poor and middle class by taking away food stamps from many, cutting Medicare and Medicaid, both of which I rely on. Yes, this budget will result in increased poverty and hunger in America. As long as he can hit a golf ball around one of his clubs, why should our liar in chief care?
127
Just spent hours yesterday dealing with health insurance issues. (Yes, I'm even on Medicare, so don't think Medicare covers everything.)
This country has been completely and utterly scammed by Trump and his toadying Republicans. Bombers, tanks and war profits aren't going to make us well. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
82
trump is now, and was during the election, what he has always been - a total fraud. Thanks to media saturation but lack of due diligence, it worked in the election.
But let's not kid ourselves. trump is the ideal front man for the Republican Dream. The Congressional republicans, even those who most claim to be deficit hawks, love this budget. More military extravagance and everything else slashed - what's not to like? Now they can use the deficit that their tax cut scam deepened as a talking point to excuse even more cuts to SS, Medicare, Medicaid, SS and pubic services in general. And just watch the cash flow into their campaigns from the likes of the Koch Brothers.
188
The Koch Boys and the mercers are the ones controlling this administration via their giant funding of the GOP agenda....Kellyann Conway's real boss is the Mercers and she is their to keep them on point and the Koch Network also has an operative in the WH also keeping tabs on them and insuring that the Koch's get what they paid for...quid pro quo is their strategy.
2
Looking at the size of the budget book, it is obvious that Trump didn’t write it, didnt read it, doesn’t know what is in it and could care less about any of it, except for the business opportunities it presents to him, his family and friends.
I trust that Trump supporters still like Trump’s shtick of insults, name-calling and vulgarity, because a year in, it is clear that that’s all Trump can offer.
Hope the measly tax cuts and one time bonuses keep pace with the inflation-driven Trumpian policies. Hope the warm and fuzzy glow you get from having conservative Supreme Court justices will be sufficient warmth to replace the unaffordable and unavailable more conventional sources of heating.
66
Keep giving the masses (cult members) bread and circuses, and watch the Republic fall...
4
The 2018 congressional elections are now more important than ever. A Republican Congress would support this madness.
Uninformed voters need to be educated. This is a job that the media has to do to protect our country. Up to now they merely report the statements that include misinformation from politicians without challenging the untruths. They also never point out the dog whistle racist remarks as well as the fake claims and divisive statements.
Fox news has to be called what it is! A propaganda outlet of the right and conservative rich.
221
Activism and education also! Join an Indivisible group - they're well organized in getting their members to contact congress, phone bank, canvass communities to provide voter information, voter registration drives, etc.
5
I think if you read the NYT you will find plenty of examples of media calling out Trump & enabling GOP on outright lies, misinformation and incoherency.
You will also be enlightened by the daily WH press briefing where a fair number of evasions are babbled daily for your pleasure.
Yes, the elections this November may decide the future course of this presidency and, maybe even, history but don't slap a broad brush over the entire pressroom; they have a hard enough time refuting the liar-in-chief's statements.
4
People in the news business need to be reminded again and again, it seems, that in fascist states they are usually out of work. And in prison.
These people are NOT conservative.
1
What's missing from this budget, and most budgets is that they are just reducing the numbers so that it adds up the way the want it to. What's missing first is the policy prescription:
1) How are we going to make Medicare better, or at least keep it as it is by using less dollars?
2) How are going to feed the poorest among us while reforming the food stamp program.
etc.
Budget's exist because resources are finite. These budgets need to flow from what reforms are taking place with these programs.
45
Yes, resources are finite. So what possible sense did it make to drain the treasury with a huge tax cut for the people who need it least?
37
Well there it is in black and white. Straight from the man himself. No fake news. No spin. This is Trump's budget. This is where he wants to take the country.
He wants to take it straight to the country club and gated communities, all on the backs of the poor and middle class.
But out here in flyover country, we love him. Jobs are pouring in. Can't see any around here, but Hannity told us so. We got a pay raise of $10/week from that tax cut. Looks like we are on the verge of a new war in Syria with Russia, Iran, Turkey, the Kurds, Hezbollah and Israel at each others throats. All with troops on the ground. No problem. We'll just blame Obama. Speaking of Obama, you know he blew up the deficit with that economic collapse we had and the Bush tax cuts and wars and all, so Trump is entitled to blow it up even more. That's Obama's fault too.
And all the that women beating and sexual assault stuff, we all know that's private and none of nobody's business what a man does with his woman. Kind of like whipping a horse to get him to gallup.
Most of all, we know better than to listen to Trump's words. We just know what's in his heart. So when he says he will cut Medicare it's the same as if he says he wont cut Medicare because of what's in his heart. He says he's got our backs. Just more fake news trying to take him down. East coast liberals are just trying to make him out to be liar.
We know that the Lord sent Trump here to save us.
764
I enjoyed that!
2
Brilliant commentary. I'm a proud west coast liberal and baffled by so many in flyover country drinking Fox News daily kool aid. Thank you for you lucid, humorous and so true assessment.
4
Perfect!!!
2
You use words like "promises" and "principle" as if these words had any meaning at all to Trump. They don't. To him, a "promise" is merely something that gets a cheer from his audience at a pep rally. It is completely irrelevant to what he will do; he has forgotten most of his "promises" before the end of the sentences in which they are voiced.
And "principles"? Trump has none, other than "me first."
Let's not be disappointed by virtues that Trump has made clear he has never possessed. This absence of integrity was clear to most of us even during his campaign.
382
It was jaw-dropping to me that none of his supporters seemed to care about this. I've watched this guy over the past 4 decades and then I see these awful campaign ad's where hes out there listening to people and just shaking his head in agreement and all I could think was "what a phony.. What an obvious fraud". The only person Donald Trump cares about is Donald Trump.
5
Don’t mean to be cynical here, but I’m guessing of the 40% or so who still support Trump, exactly 0% will read the budget proposal (and that includes the Congressional republicans and Trump himself).
631
Of the 40% who support Trump, 39.9% don’t even know what a “budget” is, and they don’t care; the other 0.1% are the ones who wrote it and who will benefit from it.
9
The sick document also includes a federal civilian pay freeze (while military of course is given heaps of more cash).
At a time when year over year wage growth is finally at 3%, the decision to freeze pay for public service is pure cruelty. Feds rely on these adjustments to tread water and keep up with rising living costs. Congress should correct this mistake immediately.
164
I assume you yourself (or your spouse) are a Federal worker.
1
Why would congress want to correct this “mistake?” I’m surprised Trump’s budget doesn’t call for pay cuts for federal employees. Get rid of all, privatize the Departments of Agriculture, Education, Housing, etc.. isn’t that the ultimate Republican goal?
3
Freeze pay and they go away.....on their own even!
1
The saving grace of our consitutional system is the ebb and flow, pull and take of different interests. Clearly, we are at the extreme now with a greedy few grasping all the benefits for themselves. I cannot help but think that when the majority see the great harm that is being inflicted upon them and how they have have been bamboozled, the tide will turn.
40
"greedy few.."? The threat to our country's vast middle and lower class would be much less if it were just a few. The percentage may be 1% or 10% but the numbers are significant when there is such a wealth transfer to the 1 or 10%. But I hope you are right that the majority see what's happening and they vote in November. Without the vote, things will continue to deteriorate.
5
I hope so. I'm not sure the facts will filter down to that 35% or so who support this corrupt and immoral administration. I don't know how to get through to them. They seem to have blinders on.
1
Trump may have promised not to cut Social Security & Medicare. But in the Republican alternate universe, where Mr. Ryan's plan to privatize Social Security was called "reform" instead of repeal, where spending for the middle class is always called "redistribution" while spending for the rich is called "free markets," words really have no meaning.
453
I see the cover of "an American Budget" says "efficient, effective, accountable". Of the first two claims, this budget is most definitely not efficient and effective. Of the third, accountable, I certainly hope that will be the case. When the American people fully absorb the effect of this inefficient budget and the harm it will do to this nation, they will come out in droves to the polls and make sure that Trump and Congressional Republicans are held accountable, good and hard.
DD
Manhattan
724
The problem is that people only "get it" when they get hurt.
The hurt won't come till after the 2018 mid-terms
11
I hope so...older people vote and they will be shocked when they see what happens to their Soc Sec and Medicare/Medicaid which are NOT "entitlements" but paid for already through years of work. I hope everyone comes out to vote, get those young/first time voters engaged because their futures are at stake, and all need to vote for their best interests and stop this insane destruction before people start dying because of the criminals who currently populate OUR Whitehouse and OUR Congress.
7
Dear Ms. S. Garratt:
Excellent points all. I find it shocking that even in the presidential election only half of all eligible voters turn out. Have we Americans become so compliant we just don't care anymore? When so many are gullible enough to believe an incompetent as Trump is a viable alternative to Hillary, a woman of accomplishment, we are headed down the wrong track. A knowledgeable electorate is required, which means a lot of people got a lot of learning to do. Maybe the horror of Trump will put a fire up some peoples be-hinds. One can only hope.
DD
Manhattan
5