I liked it better when Republicans were deficit hawks—a sentence I never expected to write.
The USA spends three trillion five hundred dollars on medical care yearly. It is estimated by the Medicare agency to go up to more than Five and a half billion dollars yearly by 2025 In addition, we have hundreds of billions of dollars in expenses because of illnesses that keep millions of productively working,,
and need government financial assistance because of their medical conditions.
President Trump wants to cut research at the National Institutes of Health who are trying to find preventions and cures for disabling medical conditions.
Only about 19% of the National Institutes of Health research grant requests are funded. These come from medical school professors and other scientists and engineers.
It is foolish from a humanitarian and financial standpoint to impede America's medical scientific research by keeping the National Institutes of Health budget so low. Shame on us.
2
Trump uses scary words--dangerous times, keep Americans safe, keep terrorists out, put violent offenders behind bars to justify his budget.
Trump doesn't want to keep Americans safe. If he did, he wouldn't be gutting the EPA, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the State Dept. and Education. The U.S. is not in danger of outside attack, and already has the largest military in the world. There's no need to augment it.
He increased the defense budget so he could divert it to build "the Wall". With the world's highest incarceration rate, violent offenders are behind bars. He's talking about locking up illegal immigrants.
Trump's budget is also about how to pay down the huge debt incurred when Republicans gave an enormous ta x reduction to the rich.
The U.S. had to borrow money to finance the tax cut. Since the tax cut is permanent, for the top 10%, the U.S. has to continue borrowing to pay the rich.
The other 90% pay for these loans and their interest payments with higher taxes and deadly cuts to all human services. Not only that, the 90% pay down any other loans the U.S. has taken out to simply run the country.
The tax break for the rich did NOT stimulate the economy, e.g., providing new, full-time jobs with benefits, higher wages, training workers for jobs in technology, or creating programs in green technology, a sure money-maker.
Trump's budget is monarchical in its burdens. What's next--a salt tax?
It insupportable, and must be rejected.
4
The Republicans in congress are to blame for not controlling this idiot. Need to rename the Republican party Ship of Fools.
3
I have a novel idea for reducing America's budget deficit: (1) Increase taxes on the wealthy and (2) bring back the graduated tax system.
Trump signed a tax cut but failed to cut spending.
And, hey Donald, when are we going to get Mexico's check for your wall? Promises made . . .
6
A hollow document from a hollowed out shell of a man. He reveals his and his party's true intentions towards 99% of the country: impoverishment, impoverishment, and eventual disappearance. Any politician who votes for or agrees with this "budget" should be voted out of office as quickly as possible. This budget is a recipe for the wholesale destruction of anyone not making millions of dollars every year.
6
The military budget has doubled since 2003. The military spending is the biggest threat to our nation.
2
Trump budget preface: "In these dangerous times, this Budget Blueprint...focus(es) on keeping Americans safe, keeping terrorists out of our country and putting violent offenders behind bars."
If Trump wanted to keep Americans safe, he wouldn't be gutting the EPA, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the State Dept. and Education. We're not in danger of outside attack, and already have the largest military in the world. There's no need to augment it.
Under cover of scary words, Trump's really paying down the debt for tax cuts for the rich by slashing everything else.
The deficit will continue to climb over a decade because Americans must pay down the loans the U.S. took to finance the Republican tax break for the rich. These reductions will continue in perpetuity, so the U.S. must keep borrowing to support them.
The tax break for the rich did NOT stimulate the economy, e.g., providing new, full-time jobs with benefits, higher wages, training workers for jobs in technology, or creating programs in green technology, a sure money-maker.
Trump's future America seems to hold a poorly educated population, sickened by environmental pollution with no medical care and small retirement benefits. Educated workers will have to be imported. With diplomacy gone, we become "Island America".
Trump's budget is insupportable, and must be rejected.
Link to graph showing Trump proposed budget: https://s.abcnews.com/images/US/trump-proposed-budget-7-ap-jc-190311_hpEmbed_1x1_992.jpg
2
This budget proposal is a great example -- one of many -- of Trumpism and what a ghastly thing it is.
While I like Nancy Pelosi as a seasoned, shrewd politician -- which we desperately need against the GOP machine -- and as someone with good values, she is wrong about impeaching Trump: "He's not worth it." I get the political angle, but I don't want another two years of destruction of our country. Trump is not worthless, he is far, far worse. Trump is much worse than the kind of president James Madison had in mind in the impeachment debates and final impeacment articles in the Constitution as ratified. He would have used Trump as a poster child for impeachment.
Russia -- the country that knows us best among our enemies -- desperately wanted ANYONE as president over Hillary Clinton; desperately wanted ANY Republican as president over ANY Democrat; and more than anything wanted Donald Trump over ANYONE else. Putin's Russia would love to see us destroyed, but they would gladly take a severely weakened United States in power, prestige, respect, and admiration on the world stage. That was always the major rebuke to Russia's own prestige and system of government: a country with high-minded values that was also the most powerful and respected country in the world.
Russia was right. It's agenda is simple: "If we can't outdo them, let's undo them." Trump is harming us domestically and in world relations beyond Russia's wildest dreams. And 35% of Americans still love him.
5
Trump is a man who has managed to avoid all the realities of life that everyone who works for a living and with which every community of humans must address successfully. The wealth given him by his family and those who he has manipulated have saved him from consequences that usually follow from his kind of behaviors. This deficit spending and undercutting the means by which our country prevents widespread and profoundly destructive impoverishment is no trivial matter. This country cannot prosper if only the lucky can live with their basic needs satisfied. It will become a country with dirt roads and people crippled by poverty with walled enclaves for the rich and powerful if this is allowed to persist.
The conservatives before Reagan wanted to avoid disruption and to preserve ways that were practiced while the country was prospering. They tolerated injustices because they really feared the unknown injustices which might follow reforms. Today’s right are reactionaries who just want to return to ways that advantaged themselves. It’s a mean spirited mentality and far from how most Republicans used to think.
2
Democrats absolutely must use this statement of intent in their campaigning against Trump during 2020.
1
GOP's 2018 tax cut for billionaires blows a trillion dollar hole in the nation's fiscal health and now the GOP wants to spend even more than before. Explain to me again how that makes them the fiscally responsible party.
2
Why does it take an experienced developer (the one thing he is supposed to know how to do) $8.7 million, per mile, to build a 13th century wall but we can't fund modern education or the environmental protections? Doesn't Trump realize that the Mongols still defeated China despite the wall! It's know wonder so many world leaders are playing cat and mouse with Trump ... and his only response is ... give meeeee a momental wall and a bigger gun and and I'll show them!
1
The donors must have asked for this, I guess to see if they could get away with it. After all who benefits from military budget that is twice that of any other country? The war equipment manufactures. Certainly not the cannon fodder. They need those food stamps, darn it, to put food on their table they are paid so little.
And Nancy will not impeach. Why? Because sadly it serves the corrupt part of the Democratic party to have Trump. And even if the impeachment went to the Senate and failed those Republicans would be on record as voting no and it would go against them in the next election.
There is already proof of high crimes and misdemeanor. We do not need Mueller. So here we have a Democratic party that does not stick up for us. If the Republicans are guilty of aiding and abetting a president who is a criminal, than so, sadly are the corrupt Democrats. And thankfully there are Democrats,especially the new members of congress, who do not take bribes and vote for the interests and needs of regular people. And didn't we all pay in to SS? Isn't that stealing to take it away from us?
2
It's tragic that some of the people who would get hurt most by such a budget continue to support the person responsible for it. And the 1% or better .1% who have benefited most from this administration can pour loads of money into the 2020 election to keep things the cushy way they are for them. THAT'S where democrats have work to do: change the electoral system.
3
The inmates are running the asylum...
1
I do love the lead photograph.
1
When are they going to cut the president’s spending? Every time he goes to Mar-a-Lago, it costs taxpayers over $3 million. Each time. Mar-a-Lago is NOT the winter White House. It is a trump property.
9
The tRump Regime's "budget proposal" makes us citizens pay about 7% more for 5% fewer services. Who gets that 12%?
4
Waiting for the war Trump will bring just as I waited for the war Bush brought. How else will those invested in the war industries enrich themselves?
I'm keeping an eye on Venezuela (they have oil) as a possible Trump target. Trump is already interfering there. Keep it in the news.
3
Yeah cutting Medicaid, Medicare and NSF funding is a GREAT way to fund the wall....
Are we all to suffer from his delusions?
2
Republicans are against a government that costs them money or makes them support public services. Being rugged individuals who are entirely self sufficient, they see others who are not as weak and silly people. They also don’t believe in giving in to changes like warming climates. If you give nature an inch it will take a mile. Better to refuse to accept natural phenomena that is undesirable so that it will give up and act right. Who can argue with minds that work like that?
I would sure hate to be a GM worker in Ohio right now. Job loss, healthcare cuts. Trump supporters appear to be the worst off by his Presidency. And all he has to do to keep their support is dangle a big shiny wall in front of them.
4
Besides the fact that Trump and his family are so guilty of so many crimes involving Russia, whether it's direct tampering with the election or indirectly, this insane man convinced those who can least afford it that his tax bill was GREAT. IT is not great for anyone except greedy corporations and top 1%. We're not seeing any savings due to the decline in what we can write off. Those are the facts.
And whatever happened to the debt? remember how he slammed Obama over the debt? Trump is adding more now in a short time than Obama did during a crisis. Oh, and cuts to ENTITLEMENTS? Does anyone realize we pay into that all our lives - it's basically a savings program that the government gets to borrow from and use OUR money!!! What is wrong with folks if they don't realize that?
4
YES this should finally make it clear even to rabid Trump supporters that he does not care about average Americans and even less about the poor and elderly. We know this is a no-go and likely could not even pass had the GOP remained in control of the house.
It is an attempt to "honor" one campaign promise by sacrificing another promise, not to touch SS or Medicare.
Trump has no clue and neither do the GOP who recently increased our debt and deficit by $2Trillion to give more welfare to the rich and now he wants to inflate it a few more trillion to give more to the top at the expense of everyone else.
How does he even think that among the many who need these safety net programs there are not republican voters?
His base will love it until it hits them in the wallet, which in a way may be what drives them away by way of self preservation. Like his many "friends" now enemies and on the way to jail, his base won't let him take them down with the ship.
https://joethevoter.org
1
Does anyone out there know of someone who will lend me $5 million, say for a new first mortgage, with a payback starting in 25 years? I will most likely be dead and gone and the rest of you and your kids can pick up that for me and I will thank you from heaven.
1
This document has as much legitimacy as the Trump University course catalog.
6
Why would you ever give the Pentagon more guns than it even wants---at the same time you cut the health, nutrition, and education of the rest of us? This is the road to a banana republic.
6
At the end of the day, nothing will happen here. Trump has no real intention of changing anything. North Korea continues its Nuclear weapon and missile program, there is no change in NATO , there is no wall, nor a decrease in illegal immigration.
Yes, problems are getting worse—global warming and the national debt keeps rising, for example. The nation’s infrastructure continues to crumble, the opiod crisis worsens.
Trump’s ratings, though,remain constant. He has his audience and he has his brand for the Trump Organization to make money from them. He is hoping for another Hail-Mary victory in 2020, but no matter if he loses. He’ll get his own FOX show nightly, and use it to float every crazy conspiracy theory that will delight his audience.
4
This budget is transparent for what it really is: a gift to the wealthy and the military industrial complex. The Pentagon did not ask for more money yet they should get more so they can buy $500 hammers. You kind of miss the voices of the old-time conservatives who would be screaming about the trillion-dollar deficit which is about half of what Obama was running. And even more absurd the tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations have contributed to this humongous deficit. We used to hear over and over about Barack Obama's national debt. Some people would even send links showing a live clock ticking away running up the national debt during the Obama years. I stop getting those links since Trump has been in office. No one on the conservative side seems to care about the national debt anymore. We are supposed to believe that the budget would be balanced in 15 years long after Trump is out of office. That's not going to happen. Even Bill Clinton balanced the budget. The 31% cut in the EPA's budget suggest there will be more heavy metals in the air and water of Trump's supporters. Those heavy metals sure won't be emitted in Manhattan where Trump calls home.
1
America home of the free and the BRAVE .
Except for the President.
He is always talking of the biggest and greatest etc. etc. etc.
Now he wants the biggest and greatest Bankruptcy of all.
The USA.
The coward in chief could not do this without Mr. McConnell's backing. Power in their hands will destroy the country.
2
The party of small government -- or small minds?
2
This absurd budget proposal (that's all it is, just a proposal) is dead in the water, as far as the House of Representatives is concerned, which will probably prompt the dear leader to shut down the government again.
1
I really don't see how Trump and his ineffective administration finds any support among the Republicans or even the average American citizenry. With all the hirings firings resignations investigations....how is he of any relevance to us as a nation at all except to make sure he is voted out of office as soon as possible and by an overwhelming landslide of votes! Our country has not been Made Great during his time in office.If anything the total and complete opposite has occurred and it has got to stop. No matter who is elected now...they will have an uphill climb to unite and heal our divided nation and repair the damage done by the worst President in American history. It is still so hard for me to believe that so many of us who vote...made the decision to support this divisive President . There are still too many of us including the Republicans who still support this administration...it's just unfathomable to me !! Surely there are many more if us.... who see the truth than those who choose to believe the lies ?? The negative impact of this administration can be turned for good if we act swiftly and vote in the future with greater care !
4
we're entrenched in a hostile corporate takeover but we're too angrily divided to see it
7
It will be interesting to see how the many people who voted for Trump (aging white Americans who rely on SS and Medicare, poor white Americans who rely on Medicaid and other social safety net programs, and farmers) will feel when they realize he is cutting them off at the knees and cutting back on the programs upon which they rely.
It will also be interesting to see how many of them will continue to want the "wall" when they see that their health care benefits will be cut to, in essence, pay for the wall. I thought Mexico was going to pay for the wall.
His budget proposal may have helped hand the 2020 election to the Democrats- and I couldn't be happier.
6
This budget reflects the lemma of the GOP and the rich, like Trump:
-Only the wealthy deserve to be healthy.
-Only the wealthy deserve an education.
-Only the wealthy deserve to be protected in old age.
-It is okay for the wealthy to poison our environment.
And list goes on and on to keep fueling money to the rich!
7
Apparently, Mr. Trump does not remember his campaign promise that there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Another lie to get elected.
6
Every candidate lies on the campaign trail. There’s more than enough to despise about Mr. Trump without going where every politician goes.
he has bankrupted his own companies and now he would like to bankrupt a country. Where are the adults in Congress who need to just say no.
Is this a new Putin plan to take America down? Internet is working for him but maybe not fast enough. The trump voters are about to lose big time on this budget. They will soon see it was never about them only about him and his addiction. to money and praise. They will be left dreaming about what might have been.
9
This budget provides more proof that Trump is the worst president in American history.
11
Show us the tax return of the trump organization family and all the money laundering activities then will know why they are afraid of what they perpetuated against the country and world.
11
But trump promised that unlike his republican colleagues he would never cut Medicaid, Medicare or Social Security. More promises not kept.
10
When Ronald Reagan tried to cut Social Security, Tip O’Neill declared, “ I will be fighting this every inch of the way.” He went on to say, “it’s a rotten thing to do.”
Democrats should emphasize to every American over the age of 60 that Donald is going to take away your healthcare, your Medicare that you paid for, that you’re entitled to. From this moment until the polls close on November 10, 2020. Donald’s voters skew older. They are going to have to decide whether they want to keep their healthcare or their cult leader.
8
No, and again, NO . That "Budget" from the Oval Office is far beyond one-sided, AND bloated. And then, the priorities of that Budget truly stink.
"Protecting" our Nation's School and Education Programs, (and!) "protecting" our Nation's (and Planet's) Environment are at the bottom of the List of preservation, protection, and promotion. When will Trump figure out that you can't breathe, or eat, bullets. When will he figure out that Education, and clear/honest Communication are far better than going into some phony War to make the World safe for Halliburton and Big Oil ?
A second grader would know this . It is pathetic that America has who We have at the Helm.
May 2020 bring us All a better day. Maybe, even ... a better night's sleep.
5
this budget reflects the needs of our wannabe despot of a president by exaggerating external threats and ignoring legitimate issues of concern that require foresight and intellectual fortitude.
4
His guns over butter obsession is just plain weird. Either he simply has no capacity to make sense, or he's hiding something up his sleeve here that he won't divulge.
4
As the rest of the world invests in renewable energy and addresses climate change, Trump and his people dither. Military spending is not going to make us safer or wealthier, or healthier. The rest of the developed world will leave us in the dust in terms of advanced infrastructure, quality of life for all, and economically. A country with a bloated military, a handful of billionaires, and a vast population struggling to make ends meet is not sustainable.
9
If Trump really wanted to provide affordable healthcare to more Americans, he would not be looking to cut Medicare, he would be looking to expand it. Medicare's overhead costs run at about 2%, while commercial health insurance overhead costs run at an average 17%. That's a lot of money lining executives pockets.
And why throw more money at the military than it wants? More money for defense contractors who run up fictitious costs, like the infamous $64,000 cotter pin. More money to line the pockets of contractors.
And how does cutting funds for education make this country stronger in the long run?
Not that it will matter, since we'll be cutting environmental protections, poisoning our air, land and water and poisoning our children and grandchildren. But that's OK because it will make greater profits for those destroying the environment.
As a model of irresponsibility, lack of forethought, avarice and flagrant stupidity, this budget is hard to beat.
We need to cut spending, but it needs to be done with at least an atom of intelligence.
Maybe it's time to rewrite the lyric:
Oh beautiful for specious lies,
And amber waterways.
10
To all those who still believe Trump is their friend, take a look at the cruelty of the budget: unwanted and unneeded billions for his military and his white whale, the wall, at the expense the social infrastructure that keeps us all secure and alive.
7
Everybody missed it, including the Secret Service ( or Maybe they didn’t), some of his MAGA supporters driving a black SUV ( Cadillac maybe ) almost whiped Out Trump and his Motorcade on I-85 in Opelika, Alabama. Some of his supporters were pulled over on the side and filming and caught the SUV veer off towards the motorcade, only problem they left like one second two late and got caught in the guard rails headed towards the Motorcaid.
That was before this Budget was leaked! This Budget will send the economy into a recession. Total lack of understanding on the transfer of funds and how most of the country lives.
The tax cut to billionaires was a colossal mistake and a fraud!
1
Again, Mr. Trump is helping corporates and others privatize gains while socializing losses, now in the most direct manner possible. Republicans are growing a deficit and cutting aid to poor and middle class, purely to fund a flawed military apparatus and the elite (using a totally absurd tax cut).
It should be clear to Democrats what they should run on, a system of solidarity and prosperity for all. Children are the future, yet Republicans cut their education. Future generations should be able to enjoy the joys of the beautiful US of A, yet Republicans want their life to be nothing short of pure misery. Everyone should have somewhat equal chances in life, yet Republicans have led the country to the highest social immobility and financial inequality in ages. The USA is withdrawing their military from certain ares, and rightfully so, yet Republicans want to give them more money.
It would appear then that this budget is totally lopsided and inversely focused. Perhaps it’s Topsy Turvy Day in the White House.
2
Just another example of a Republican financial plan that does nothing more than nudge the country closer to bankruptcy and financial collapse.
It's laughable that the Pentagon is getting more money than they think is even necessary. I guess the generals realize that if things continue as they are, there won't be much of a country left over to defend in the end.
2
Now if we can just cut the taxes more for the uber rich, and make it up by slashing social security and medicare all will be fine. Medicare makes people use medicines that make them sick and drive up the cost of health care. We will have a budget surplus and pay off the national debt in three months. Those people on food stamps are too fat and can miss a meal or twenty.
We can invade Venezuela and start a war with Iran to steal their oil, to make up any shortcoming.
More money can be saved by canceling the 2020 elections, because trump is the most popular president ever.
2
La La Land...
Irresponsible budgeting. Like to see him make the first cuts to the amount of money his family has spent using government resources using security and resources for unnecessary expenditures.
2
The budget would include a 12 Percent Cut to NIH Budget in Fiscal 2020. NIH = National Institute of Health.
That would mean among other things cutting back on Alzheimers and cancer research.
This clearly demonstrates that Trump and the Republicans are waging a war on science, health, the wellbeing of American citizens, fact based decisions and truth.
Crippling the NIH would also affect bioscience worlwide.
5
Literally the worst budget I've ever seen proposed.
The guy wants to withdraw troops from the Middle East and downscale our involvement in other countries affairs ,(good) will simultaneously increase military spending significantly? We already spend more than the next 7 countries combined. Imagine what we could do if we increased aid for the poor, cut military spending in half and improved our infastructure and made education and healthcare affordable! We'd be as awesome as other first world nations!
I think Alzheimer's which claimed his father is taking its toll on Don Jr as well. Get out there and vote midwesterners in 2020, our vote doesn't count in CA.
6
Trump truly understands that the intelligence of his base cannot be underestimated. They'd all be negatively affected by his proposed cuts to healthcare, education and increases in military spending. And yet they will blindly support him!
3
It's getting late. I am very frightened when I read this that it might actually come to pass. Very frightened. It destroys what little assistance the old and the poor get from the government in order to pay for more weapons that will never be used. It is an act of deep insanity.
4
Trump gave away our money to ultra wealthy via tax cuts. Now, Trump wants to take away our Medicare that we have been paying into our entire lives. I’m baffled. How does Trump manage to get people other than the top 1% to vote for him?
5
The $4.75 trillion budget plan presented by Trump that prioritise military spending or similar other big ticket expenditure over society's crying needs of education, public health, pollution free environment, social safety net, or the gainful employment seem not only misplaced priorities but are clearly at odds with the common aspirations of society. The Congress with its primary obligations to the constituents and constitutional obligation to ensure prudent public spending through sharp oversight can't afford any indiscretion or neglect while taking up the Trump presented budget for consideration. The Congress thus has no option but to reject the wasteful spending plan offered by Trump.
1
The West needs to stop spending so much money on its old people. That’s the reality.
It’s very difficult to do so because they vote in such huge numbers, and so have been consistently able to take from younger generations (through benefits, through housing, through cheap subsidized fossil fuels, etc). But that is the challenge that will need to be overcome if Western democracies want to create growth and a better future for their young people (the ones with a productive future ahead of them).
I’m not saying we need to put the old folks out on the ice floes, but if you reach your 70s without the means to take care of yourself, you’re not going to do anything about it then. That money spent on elderly care is deadweight loss. Money spent on the young is investment.
@TH
Money spent on elderly care is a loss? You will get old. You do realize that right? You do realize that someone will have to take care of you if you can't do it yourself when you get old, right? It doesn't matter how much you have put aside, if the resources are there, you WILL take advantage of them.
1
For the love of God, Democrats, if you want to win the center, center right and independents start running on the Debt, social security, and Medicare.
Run on RAISING social security by 10% for seniors making 25k or less, and 5% for those living under $50k. That’s right, raise it! And get the money from defense (offense) budget or better yet, don’t pay for it. It pays for itself, run on it!
The pitch: They’re going to take everything you worked for away, and they’re going to bankrupt our country. Say it over and over 24/7, because
1) it’s true
2) it’s scary
3) it’s a winning argument.
Obama cut the deficit by more than half even though most of his 8yr presidency was consumed by a deep recession. Trump doubled it in two years, with an economic expansion. That’s insane. Why aren’t Democrats pounding that message? Isn’t that how the tea party swept into power?
33
So in addition to $1.9 trillion loss in Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, the poor who receive food stamps and housing assistance will lose out as well. There goes the federal safety net for, I estimate, 25% of the population. Yet Emperor Trump wants to increase military spending — for what? If this doesn’t sound like the fall of the Roman Empire...
14
I am confused DJ. I thought we were pulling back militarily in Afghanistan, Africa, and Syria as well as withdrawing from NATO, an unnecessary military alliance. Why do we need more military spending instead of less? I do not use twitter. You can email me.
8
Best as I remember, the GOP-controlled Congress ignored all of President Obama's proposed budgets, and they included more $$ for better border security.
But Barack didn't cry and whine and tweet about it.
6
Wonder what Trump really meant with Making America Great Again since it seems obvious he wants to turn America into a third world country.
13
In ancient Greece, Spartans spent everything on the military, while Athens spent on diverse needs. Today, which of these cities is known for its major imprint on civilization?
17
Well, hopefully the democrats running in 2020 can hammer the message home that I am seeing in many of these comments. Some of those messages are beware cuts to Social Security and Medicare, further transfer of wealth to the already wealthy, etc.. that will happen under a republican administration. Democrats, please find a handful of these powerful messages, and keep repeating them and stay on point. Thanks to all the amazing people that comment on the NYT!
14
The mystery of why the rich kid from Queens went bankrupt so often has been solved, he's an out-of-control spendthrift - but in this instance it's not his inheritance he's blown, it's taxpayers money he's spending like a drunken sailor. The financial clean-up from this most unfortunate of Presidencies will take decades to address. And now a new mystery emerges - why do people still vote for him?
17
Ok, legislators, walk into hospital rooms and tell the elderly face to face you’re cutting their Medicare. You might as well rip out their IV’s, yank out their tube feedings, and toss out their wheelchairs.
16
I agree. But no one will be in the hospitals because they don’t have medical insurance and even emergency rooms will turn them away. That is, if the hospitals still exist and aren’t sold to wealthy developers to build luxury accommodations for the wealthy.
2
There is a deep anger growing in the patient population. Dr offices are full of angry patients. the costs are just outrages. So is the medicine, and its coming to a boil. Remember this generation pg old people gree up in the sixties. Prices need to be regulated. Trump has only given lip service to lower drug prices. Aint ever gonna happen on his watch.
Royal piece of work. The real criminal and danger to many, many Americans sits in the Oval Office. Disgraceful.
12
Here's a conspiracy theory, following Cohen's testimony in particular that Trump will not give up power willingly or peacefully....are all the expressions of military devotion a part of Trump's plan to bring the military onto his side in the event of his impeachment, arrest and/or loss of an election? Trump also loves and respects Russian, North Korean, Indonesian and Chinese dictators, oh, I mean "real leaders". It was Mao that said political power grows from the barrel of a gun (as a metaphor for the military). Frightening, but a US President, that couldn't be it, right? Hard to know what to think these days.
12
This suggests that if it was still a Republican controlled house this budget would pass, history suggests otherwise. Don't blame the Democrats just because this year they are the adults in the room. Trumps looney budgets in the previous two years didn't pass either. Let's not forget.
8
The President's proposed budget demonstrates he thinks people are expendable.
What this country needs is investment in people.
I have lived long enough to have experienced this country ignoring suffering people and the environment. We do not need to go there again.
The political divide must be breached by people reaching across it, not filled by people falling into the abyss.
Elect a President and a Congress who will reach across with us.
10
Note the reverse Robin Hood, cruelty-in-action policy of this president. 2018- Republicans pass a tax cut that reduces federal revenues by $2.3 trillion over 10 years, almost all of the tax cut going to the wealthiest of the wealthy, and they brag about it. 2019- President proposes cuts to medicare, medicaid, food stamps, housing programs, etc, totally $1.9 trillion over ten years. Is taking from the poor to give to the rich what conservative Christians prioritize? It's all the Republican party knows how to do these days.
12
Interesting budget. It increases money we send overseas, to countries that have budget surpluses and universal healthcare, and decreases money for Americans healthcare, roads, schools and infrastructure. But of course includes tax relief for the wealth and tax increases for the middle class.
11
Ridiculous. Blows up the deficit and does nothing to address the most serious threats facing America - eg climate change, lack of health care, decaying infrastructure and education system, lack of good paying jobs and economic security.
Trump and his policies are essentially just a joke now. We need to put this whole corrupt and incompetent administration behind us and move forward.
19
Ha! Lookout grandma and grandpa! Trump just cut your Medicare in his new budget! But his rich buddies got some great federal contracts deals! This guy is Mr. Bait and Switch! Re-elect him so I can get more money please. Hahaha!
9
This country is going completely in the reverse direction that too super fast and you call yourself world leaders, exactly what ?
6
I would love to see every article about Trump begin with the phrase :
" President Trump, who refused to release his tax returns......"
17
Well, you get what you vote for. I can get the guy wanting to cut education. His continued employment relies on uninformed people who are easy to steer. The existence of Trump just shows how ugly this country has become.
16
Trump isn't smart enough to come up with this stuff. It's McConnell, throwing stink bombs into the new House majority. He knows Dems will waste time and energy fighting with each other, everyone expressing their outrage in a different way. Meantime, Republicans in Congress will continue to actually WORK TOGETHER toward their greedy, tax-cutting, MIC-funding, gerrymandering, billionaire-loving agenda. It's so sad, like Charlie Brown with the football.
9
No regard for science.
No compassion for his fellow Americans.
No love for nature or our planet.
No passion in his heart except for winning, winning, winning.
What a horror of a president
17
Not a single big idea, no plan to address the core issues America is facing.
At this point Trump’s just trolling.
14
So if Trump is getting us out of wars, and getting the NATO countries to pay more ......then why do we need more money for the military???
14
@Cheryl Exactly. And there isn't an agency more deliberately clueless about its budget, and I don't count the black budget. Though I think Sen. Sanders protests too much after getting the ultimate symbol of DoD waste, the F-35. for his Fortress Vermont Air Guard.
3
@Cheryl
Maybe the military money is for private security services, private reconstruction firms?
1
@OvercastSwamp
Unfortunately that money and planes were going to go somewhere.
He got a lot of money and jobs for his constituents.
That is what he is paid and elected to do.
1
Donald Trump wants to win. After bankrupting several companies he wants the #1 spot on bankruptcy list record, that is the United States of America
7
Leave it to reality-show TV-President Trump to present his budget with a message-manipulating cover saying, "Budget for a Better America". It's like he bought naming rights to a stadium or something. Everyone one who covers it is stuck promoting his message. There ought to be a law.
Has any other administration used the budget cover in such a cynical manipulation when they present what is merely a budget? I doubt it. More theater of the absurd by the administration of the absurd. What will next year's cover look like, "Budget for an Even Better America" ? And what after that? "Budget for Donald Trump's Re-election Year"? "Budget of No Collusion"? Seriously, this stuff gets crazier by the day.
11
@Brian W.
We had laws regulating media. Good Ones. Reagan eliminated them all. It was a grab from the South. They didn't have any media. But it did create CNN.
Why $4.75 trillion dollars? Let's see. First there's the military who gets more than they ask for which makes me wonder if they asked for a much larger amount, say one trillion, would they get $1.1 trillion? Is the wall made out of platinum to deserve $8.6 billion? The muralist with their brushes and many cans of paint will have a ball. I never could figure out why the government spends so much money then tries to pay it back with funds from social security, Medicare,and Medicaid. It's like robbing Peter to pay Paul.
The Democrats say DOA. Does not Trump's base, along with the rest of 'we the middle class' have a vested interest in our safety net programs.?
The man has really socked Medicare and Medicaid, but the rich president who has never worked wants work requirements just short of death for those who need food stamps, housing and Medicaid.
The more I read the more depressing it gets. Oh, there is one part about prescription drugs. I may have to give him credit for taking a stab at prescription drugs. Also, I have to give Mr. Trump credit for taking on the opioid addition and to increase healthcare spending for veterans. As I keep reading
the EPA becomes a pile of twigs, there's a small cut in Education, cuts in the Energy Department, the Dept. of Interior...
A few good, mostly bad. Not touching the safety net programs was a campaign promise. It's up to Ann Coulter with that one. This budget doesn't remind me of grandma's apple pie. It's a budget for the rich.
7
So much for fiscal responsibility.
10
Trump’s failure. If Pelosi wants to prove herself as responsible (finally), reject this budget.
3
Where to start? My personal vote for most egregious cut is the gutting of research into climate change. I find this particularly grating because it attacks the very basis for understanding what is happening to our climate. Without this type of inquiry, the Trump administration will be free to continue their climate denial. They will be able to say that there is no research indicating that climate change is due to human activity with some truth to that statement.
Coming in a close second would be cuts to Medicaid which could literally put many nursing home seniors in this country out on the street.
A particular irony in all of this is the fact that Trump supporters and their parents stand to suffer most from the cuts. How can this budget possibly be spun to suggest otherwise?
8
$19 million for climate change research was already a sad joke. It’s literally nothing in the big picture.
CEO’s et al. of for-profits routinely make at least that much per year.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the CEO’s of even a few non-profits earn that much annually as well.
Zeroing it out at least makes Trump fully “honest” about the extent of his administration’s negligence. And the GOP’s, overall, as well.
What can I say? Trump is unfortunately likely to win again. While I like some of the ideas coming from new Dem progressive wing, I fear much of it will simply be used against the party.
Right now, beyond resisting the potentially unconstitutional anti-BDS prohibitions, Israel is way down on the list of concerns. The last thing the Dems need is to be fighting amongst themselves over Omar or taking a beating from the GOP on this topic. Sometimes folks need to put their own projects aside for the time being so there’s actually a future in which to actually more productively address them.
1
You had me at: Mr. Trump’s budget, the largest in federal history...
This is the party of less government?
14
Part one was the most awful and regressive tax cut in US history, passed by Trump and the GOP without a single Democratic vote. It was nothing but a massive payout to billionaires and a way for huge corporations to buy back stock instead of actually investing in anything. It exploded the debt, and the rest of us are already paying for it. Children just being born will be paying off that Trump/GOP handout to billionaires for the rest of their lives. (Anyone perchance shocked upon learning they not only lost their tax refund this year, but even worse, actually owe taxes? Well, take solace in knowing that your money was put to excellent use by billionaires buying essentials, like Luxury Ice Cubes, which cost about $400 for small bag).
Part two is this budget which will gut programs which the middle class has been paying into and depends upon. I've been paying into the Social Security Trust Fund and the Medicare Trust Fund since I was 10 years old, while my parents paid into these trust funds every week for half a century.
For 40 percent of women over 65 these programs are their sole source of income, and the only reason they're not homeless.
Make America Great Again -- Kick Grandma to the curb, and watch her succumb to illness, exposure, or starvation. Trump may be the lowest form of slime, but he'll never be alone in his depravity thanks to Mitch McConnell and the GOP.
13
Is President hinting the world that
Progress means huge military budget ? Progress means arms and ammunition by manyfold ? Progress means creating war hysteria ? Progress means completely neglecting climate change ? Progress means neglecting education ? Progress means fully neglecting people’s healthcare ? Progress means neglecting people’s welfare ?
5
Everyone knew trump would propose an outlandish budget request in order to set-up his next government shutdown and right on cue, here it is.
What happened to infrastructure - his $1-$3 trillion package to get America's roads, bridges and utilities the repairs and upgrades?
The GOP doesn't want this budget and will happily hide behind Pelosi's skirt and then blame the House.
Last November, Pelosi said that the public spoke loud and clear: healthcare. This budget strikes at the heart of how many seniors receive their healthcare.
This battle should ensure a Democratic wave into the White House, Senate and House.
11
I wonder how much we really need to spend on defense. What if we just matched China's defense spending? We'd still be #1. Do we need some 800 foreign military bases? And do we have to change every regime we don't like? That effort rarely works out well for either side.
But I guess if we reduced any of this effort, we'd implode. So no slack there.
Can the U.S. government not cut anything? If we could, I'd like to see it spent on human welfare.
Do we need Departments of Commerce, Transportation, and Education? Can't states handle that?
The largely invisible Education Department started in 1980, and I don't see much value in their product. Yes, our schools seem below par. But have they been dramatically aided by Betsy DeVos and her predecessors? Seems we did better before 1980 than after.
If we could reduce or eliminate such departments, I'd like to see some of that money spent reversing climate change, the second most dangerous issue facing us, after nuclear war, of course.
But, apparently, every penny and more are needed on all fronts and at all times.
$4,750,000,000,000 per year
Over $13 billion per day
Over $542 million per hour
Oh, I guess that's not too bad. We could use a Moon base (Bush's idea) and a Space Force (Trump's idea).
3
Please do not mislead the public about the authorship of yet another obscene and immoral "Trump budget." This man knows nothing about this one or any other--except maybe for the billions more he's asking for his idiotic, boondoggle wall. He only knows how to bust budgets, declaring bankruptcy and then scamming his creditors out of their money. Only this time he and his incompetent and corrupt administration are scamming this entire, witlessly gullible country.
7
I’m a federal worker and am very disheartened that Trump is proposing a second year in a row of pay freezes, while the military enjoys nearly 6% in raises over the same time. With inflation being considered these amount to annual pay cuts.
I thought the economy was booming, Mr President?
16
@Josh G that is one way fascism works. Keep your military well fed and paid.
5
Please understand, folks.
Your favorite Presidents Trump and Putin cannot start a new Cold-war arms race unless we pump a cool trillion into upgrading our new lines of weaponry and a space force.
When everyone else buys new weapons from US in order to catch up militarily, we'll be even wealthier, which for certain people means we'll be "great."
But first, as Trump knows more about debt than anyone -- believe me -- we'll need to add tremendously to our national debt. Don't worry. It'll be yuuuuuge!
4
I saw that the proposed budget also includes vast cuts to the National Science Foundation, which is already severely under-funded. The total budget for NSF was in 2019 around $8B for the entire country. That was 1% of the military spending and less than what Trump wants for the useless wall. Now Trump was to cut NSF’s budget further! The US is already experiencing s brain drain, to contrast with decades in which we attracted the best and brightest. What a disaster!
15
Well, ‘Evidence Based ‘ anything
has been discontinued under this administration, so no need for scientists and mathmeticians to
populate our graduate schools. We’ve ALL been shifted to the ‘faith based’ program.
Recall that weak Roman emperors paid the praetorian guards and armies excessive sums. Trump’s corruption, cowardice and faithlessness are well established. Overpaying for unnecessary defense will not a brave and honest president make. Go to your fellow tyrants and autocrats, Mr. President. They don’t understand democracy either. Their people fear them.
2
Gosh what could possibly go wrong with a mentally ill fellow's budget of 5 trillion, when the United States has a 22 trillion dollar deficit, and this tragic fellow has a history a multiple bankruptcies and law suits?
11
Where's Mick Mulvaney and all the other tea party Republicans?
They railed against Obama and his spending and now with this budget and
looming debt and the 15 years to balance the budget,all to get Trump re-elected.
9
Like our Executive time, one page briefs, with graphics, President, even knows half of what his budget contains. Not like anyone thinks Trump actually read any of it.
3
It's hard to understand how Trump can want to create a Space agency which will require tons of scientific research to succeed but cut all climate research and all renewable energy research. Does he not see the disconnect? Yeah don't answer that we already know he just doesn't think. Period.
12
Sad how away from reality this 'president' is. It's like the 50's again, but on steroids, speed, and without the ghost of a thought or a shadow of morality.
The dems should do a thorough, specific analysis and show members of Trump's 'base' exactly what this 'budget' will do for them and their children.
Impeachment? Never - Let him continue to expose just who he is and, more important, who the republicans that kneel at his altar of greed and denial are.
10
Of course: ...
The party that claims to be more fiscally responsible & more fiscally conservative, supports a president who:
- Inflicts a tax bill that adds a Trillion to the national debt, to give big tax breaks to the rich (even more so to real estate developers like Trumps & Kushners).
- Raises the military budget when the military says it doesn't need the raise.
- Spends on a wall that the people and governments at the border say isn't needed.
- Includes support payments for farmers & industry for their losses created by the "easy to win" trade war; But those payments will only cover a small bit of their losses, they get to eat the rest.
Trump, who cherishes the phrase "best __ ever", now owns the 'longest shutdown ever', the 'biggest budget ever', and the 'biggest deficit ever' - believe me, believe me. Any Republicans out there, tell me how this fits within the fiscal parameters in which your party claims to believes ??
12
This may be how justice is served.
Since WW2 the US has destroyed poverty-stricken countries all over the world with brutal, ruinous wars and has backed brutal dictatorships against the aspirations of their people. We have allowed greed, ignorance, and lust for power to rule our lives. It's only fitting we destroy ourselves.
Warm up the band Nero, your audience awaits.
8
Where's the beef? I mean, where's the infrastructure? I know, infrastructure is 100% socialism that would benefit everyone. Yet another trump "promise" un-kept like his famous cheaper, better and beautiful healthcare for all promise to replace Obama-care - remember that promise before he became POTUS?
Shameful. Sham-full.
8
Trump isn't concerned with addressing middle class problems because he is a billionaire who spent his life far removed from real issues facing common people. His failed attempt at a budget is further evidence of that aforementioned fact.
The only thing that justifies the bogus information coming out of Donald Trump's amoral and self-righteous brain is the money he inherited from his father. If he had not received that money, he'd be laughed at and ridiculed like any other charlatan.
13
The fiscally conservative party.
6
Do you really think Trump even read this report?
Do you see how thick the report is, Sorry but,
Trumps not running the government, clearly his is a puppet.
7
It should be labeled, ‘The Political Theatre Budget Plan’. It really speaks volumes regarding who this arrogant man is trying to please....himself!
4
What will he achieve by hitting the people left, right and centre. Which direct war he is facing right now that compelled him to Increase military budget that too more than that asked by the Pentagon ?
How does 31 % cut in EPA help America ? How does drastic cuts in Medicare and Medicaid help America ? How does drastic cuts in Social Security funds help America ? How does drastic cuts in Education help America ?
Where is the much needed huge budget to revamp crumbling infrastructure ? Where is the provision for revamping existing Public Transportation and provision for new Public Transportation ?
12
Step one: create a budget emergency by cutting taxes to corporations and the wealthiest of Americans.
Step two: blame the budget emergency on the poor and remaining middle class to justify cuts to social services (health, education, welfare, etc)
Step three: when the cut social services begin to fail/provide poor level of services due to the lack of resources that resulted from step 2, tell the population that their government is unreliable, dysfunctional and incapable of looking after them and thus don’t deserve their hard earned tax dollars.
Step four: privatise anything/everything while selling off the community’s assets to a) provide ‘better’ services and b) help pay off large deficits that resulted from step 1.
Step 5: politicians absolve themselves of nearly all aspects of American life that actually matter to the everyday American and spend their days groveling to the various private entities which are able to provide campaign finance .
It is sad that this process is being allowed to happen throughout all levels of American governments.
15
The King of Debt is at it again. The deal artist setting out to bankrupt the people's business with spending on frills and getting rid of the necessities. Recipe for disaster.
5
Here we go. Republicans running up the deficit to fund their initiatives, but when the democrats are in control suddenly the USA must live on bread & water, or else the country will collapse. But whats worse, if Clinton and Obama left the deficit smaller than they found it, contrast to Regan, Bush 41, 43 and now Trump who all added to it. The republicans have no right to lecture anyone on deficit & debt. I don’t understand why they are allowed to get away with all this ‘fiscal conservative’ stuff. Another question; is why don’t the democrats hammer home the contrast in deficit direction between democrats & republicans over the last 40 years?
10
My first thought is that after September 30 the government will shut down again. Last time the republicans fooled us in to passing spending bills for 75% of the government I hope we do not fall for that again. It needs to be 100% or nothing.
1
The rate of economic growth for 2018 was 2.9 percent, The Federal Open Market Committee, meeting in December, has predicted a slowdown of the economy in the next two years to below 2 percent. Many economists have stated that the growth that Mr. Trump would like to brag about, 4 percent or above, is technically impossible.
That said, many of the things in this new budget will actually discourage growth; there will be less money for hiring new workers in technology and science, just for one.
Trade deficits and the deficit itself will continue to climb, and it might not matter now, but perhaps it will in the future.
This is a cruel document, and hopefully none of it will ever see the light of day.
3
Fox News has been giving 70% of its airtime on climate science to deniers for years, so it's no surprise that Trump and Republicans deny science, too. After all, it's their "most trusted" news source. But to cut the EPA by 30%, slash spending on alternative energy by 70%, and eliminate climate science programs is pure insanity. All those clean energy jobs lost. Giving technology to China. And the ruin: climate scientists have been boxing our ears with warnings that the concentration of heat-trapping gasses must stop rising or else we will suffer over-heated earth, heat waves in the ocean, extreme weather and storms, sea-level rise, and all the other life- and society-threatening effects of pollution. It would be one thing if their stupid choices affected only them; but Trump, Fox News and Republicans' deliberate ignorance, recklessness, and irresponsibility has forcing this terrible and once-upon-a-time preventable future on all of us.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2013/oct/23/climate-change-climate-change-scepticism
14
Americans will once again see how a republican president can run the economy into the ground. And most of the ones that will suffer the most are the ones that voted for him. We need to try to educate them and move them up the ladder.
9
I remember when Obama's first budget was going to pierce the $1 Trillion threshold, Republicans were incredulous. Never mind that Obama's budget was attempting to bring the country out of the biggest recession since the Great Depression, they just would not allow such a money grab - to heck if there was sound reason for it. Funny...I'm not really hearing much grief from the rank-in-file Republican. Probably because they're all so giddy for the possibility to defund education, not to mention the environment.
18
And through inept leadership, sadly we all are losing as a true democracy. I am glad to be in my seventies as Trump strips this nation of all its goodness. Regardless if he is re-elected, the die is cast. America hopefully will awake before it is too late. How are taxpayers feeling with the new tax laws? Whatever happened to infrastructure and the idea of restoring it? I guess we are going to be caught up in a FAKE border emergency that History will remember. Trump and the Titanic share something. They both sunk. The Titanic was promoted as the latest in innovation. Trump will he remembered as the President who lacked innovation other than serving his own puerile ego fulfillment. He is a divider and never a conqueror.
12
And another outrage - why on earth does Trump propose to spend more on the military than the military requests? Again, he knows more than his generals, I guess.
DoD's budgeting process does not underestimate defense needs. They filter down through every office which up-channels its wish list. Tally that up and you have the DoD budget request. A good policy is to probably multiply that request by some percentage less than 100 to get into the actual need ballpark. Trump, like Trump does, goes the wrong way again.
So let's say you're a military planner handed more money than you asked for. What are you going to do with it? Start a bunch of short term spending projects. Everything else takes years. So you'll see a bunch of newly paved parking lots and painted buildings. All with borrowed money. What a waste.
5
Pay no attention to that (supposed) billionaire behind the curtain...
Magical thinking pervades Trump's support base and, apparently, his entire administration. The Great and Mighty Ozz will deliver any dream you have, for free! Just like Santa Clause.
Who pays for all this nice shiny stuff he wants to buy. He's racking up huge debt on the national credit card while relieving himself and his rich buddies of the burden of paying it off. The rest of us, and our future progeny forever and ever amen, will be paying this outrageous monument to one fool's super-sized ego.
Giant deficits used to outrage Republicans - at least they made noises to that effect. We now see how thin their principles are and always were. The party never ceases to amaze with their slithering withdrawal from everything they formerly stood for. They are truly the party of Trump, the great unwinding of our Republic. "De-Republicans"? Or perhaps "Un-Americanx." Take your pick.
7
GOP playbook:
A) Blow up the debt with free money for the rich, corporations, and defense contractors;
B) Use blown up debt as excuse to rip money and government services away from everyone else while;
C) Pitting people with little against people with nothing;
D) Rinse and Repeat until a Democrat gets elected to clean up mess;
E) Obstruct Democrat president's attempts to clean up mess while blaming whole mess on said Democrat in order to regain power;
F) Start again at A.
24
@Haynannu
Looks about right. Time to start Chinese lessons now?
3
Can somebody please explain to me how we got here? I distinctly remember back in college when Reagan was president and the national debt was going to hit 1 Trillion dollars and the newspapers were all agog about how much money that was. We are now at 22 trillion in the hole 35 years later and even my retired CPA said he wasn’t concerned, the government can print money.
Ok maybe it can but at some point the chickens will come home to roost and it was also in college that I learned what a “j” curve was. In a nutshell it is a graph that explains how things exponentially things run away - sort of like how compound interest works.
Trump doesn’t care about long term effects of these decisions, he’ll be dead and buried in 15 years, but hopefully I won’t and I have children and a grandson now. How am I supposed to look that cute little guy in the eye and tell him it will be ok, we’ll just print more money?
3
@Ted Siebert
Dead and buried in 15 years? What a pessimist.
3
It’s interesting how one official puts the cuts to education as a “desire to have some fiscal discipline and address some higher priority needs.” My question is, what do they consider a higher priority than education. Education of our children is the only investment that will pay off. By having an educated workforce makes this country more competitive, more innovative, an educated population will allow them to make better voting choices, this has been proven time and time again. In Europe, the Netherlands, any country that values education the population is less likely to need government support, in terms of cash payments. The future uneducated worker will be relegated to low paying service jobs, working in janitorial, kitchens, customer care, slaughter houses, working at fish processing plants (I’m from Juneau, working at a fish processing plant, won’t make you rich, you’ll be lucky to make a decent living.
But maybe that’s the Republican’s agenda, by keeping their constituency uneducated, they are pretty much guaranteed the opportunity to stay in power. It’s obvious that those in Kentucky Harlan County to be precise, where a large piece the population gets 57% of their income from the federal government in the form of disability payments. The reason why, is because jobs in Harlan County are nonexistent, since they had all their eggs in their coal basket, yet they voted for the very man that if he had his way, would leave them far worse off.
12
Cutting the $80 billion budget for the Federal Dept of Education is not going to have any affect on educating kids. This huge, inefficient bureaucracy wasn’t even a cabinet level department until the Carter administration. How much has educational achievement improved since then? Throwing money at the problem is not going to accomplish anything.
1
Keeping the populace uneducated... that's been their goal from the beginning.
1
Do you think he even read it. I would like to see him sit down for a Q&A line by line it would be very interesting. Whoever enabling this madness needs to be exposed we know Trump could not come up with this or even understand a word of it. I have watched him for over two years he is not competent enough to even write the opening sentence.
19
A grant system to states for healthcare funding? Sounds like an opportunity to hold healthcare hostage if states don't behave the way Trump wants. It seems his favorite deal making strategy.
4
All of this from the ONE person who would be able to "fix" our government, and make it operate efficiently. Seems that Trump's only real goal for the US was to bankrupt it, like so many of his companies.
Even more military spending? Give more money to a sector which has offered nothing but failure for years? Would any of us take our money and put it in an account which charged interest, instead of paying it?
4
The boss here now can add this to his remarkable list of Dreams. Walls Parades and this Budget are all on equal footing. None of these will happen but this announcement does give him a couple days of media dominance which is his true intent. Last week the media fueled outrage over the congress woman from Minnesota occupied all chances of getting anything moving or completed. His mastery of headlines ensures that we are about to have more of this blather. We have been blessed as a nation with his expert stewardship. The other enablers of his see this as winning. Oh my how the bar of success has been adjusted to newer depths.
5
Billions in tax cuts for all the corporations and billionaires funded by cutting loan forgiveness programs for teachers, raiding Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, after school programs for low-income children, etc.? I think all you Republicans and Senators (talking to you Mitch McConnell), Corporate CEOS, Trump, Pence, Cabinet Secretaries, lobbyists and billionaires need to watch A Christmas Carol sometime. There's such a thing as karma--you might want to consider what you're doing to your soul.
10
Wow, I can’t wait to see how those pictures of the budget cover come out.
2
@John Doe
It's the cover that counts! It's the Trump presidency. Best cover ever.
1
How much of this tax money will Trump manage to grab and not pay any taxes on. Lock him up. We have to pay taxes why is he so special he doesn't have to.
5
@D.j.j.k.
My assumption is that Trump, his numerous-as-the-stars corporations, his family, and his country club buddies won't pay a plug nickel. That money's covered by fake losses or hidden in overseas accounts. Panama Papers.
Of he could prove me wrong by showing us his tax returns...
5
14 characteristics of fascism as described by political scientist Dr Lawrence Butt in 2003:
Google it.See how many others trumpism reflects.
No 4. Supremacy of the Military
Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
No 7. Obsession with National Security
Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
13
Pretty clear to me where the priorities lie for the Republican Party. The chickens come home to roost - a massive (widening) budget deficit during years of economic prosperity fueled by a tax policy that redistributed wealth out of the pockets of Middle Class and Lower Middle Class American families and into the pockets of the top 1% and Corporate entities, closing of tax provisions which helped many American families and now favored those entities whose income is made off of capital and real estate (just like Trump Enterprises LLC), trade tariffs that backfired and increased the cost of good to average American consumers, massive corruption and malfeasance layered upon dogma and incompetence on a scale not heretofore seen in American government.
Like Trump's businesses, POTUS' team of economic advisors must first tell the Emperor how smart and well-liked he and his policies are - there is no reality, and certainly no fact-driven policy creation. A megalomaniac who refuses to release college and high school transcripts; they'd confirm what a pathetic student young Donald Trump was then, just like he is today as a 72 year old ego-maniac incapable of leadership much less able to process complex subjects.
Five bankruptcies declared by Donald Trump - lap dog Republican politicians afraid to confront the lunacy of Mad Emperor Trump. $4.75 Trillion budget! Cuts to programs which actually help all Americans, including Trump voters. More military spending, really?
3
I do not think we need more presidential candidates. We need more Justice Democrats in the House of Representatives. We need Justice Democrats as Senators and congress-members. Please reader do step up for me in your state. Yes you!!! The person disgusted by this news. This is corruption. You need to step up and make change happen or this will happen to us. This is the call of the universe. Yes you!!! Step up. Your country needs you.
2
Trump despises anyone who doesn’t have a net worth of $100 million or more or who isn’t a military contractor. In short, he loathes America — and this budget proves it. It’s the budget from Hades.
16
Amazing how the Republican Party has become the party of fiscal irresponsibility, including massive spending and record deficits, and is now led by the most corrupt, amoral indulger of each of the Seven Deadly Sins and who personifies everything Christ suggested we all not be, who appears to lack a conscience, and who routinely throws his own country over for the likes of Putin and Kim Jong un and the House of Saud.
8
Mitch doesn't have Ann Ryan in his pocket anymore, now he's more dangerous then before. This Budget won't get the votes in the House and all hell will break out. The GOP is just running it into another bust out on the economy and tank the country.
5
Sure glad we finally elected a Republican so they can better manage the federal deficit they made a HUGE fuss about under Obama.
18
What does the six-times bankrupt king plan on using to pay for this budget? The tax cuts he gave away?
15
@JMM
That pay-back thing is on us - you and me. Trump don't pay debts.
3
Yeah, you know. Trump got not benefit from education, so why would anyone else?
16
Trump’s budget doubles-down on military spending.
Continued support of a military-industrial complex such as the world has never previously known severely undercuts civilian welfare. This support inspires military adventurism which issues in disastrous consequences for the overall American economy.
In 2017 the United States’ military expenditures were $610 billion. Those expenditures were nearly $32 billion more than the combined expenditures of China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, India, France, the United Kingdom and Japan. The 2018 U.S. defense budget was just under $700 billion. That of 2019 is $716 billion. Of the more than $600-$700 billion the US spends annually on the military, about $200 billion is allocated to research, development, testing, and procurement of advanced weapons systems. According to recent estimates, the US now accounts for 34% of all global arms sales, up from 30% five years ago. The recorded total international trade in arms is now about $100 billion per year. What of weapons deals that go unrecorded?
U.S. taxpayers support something like 800 military bases and installations on foreign soil. China, Russia, Great Britain and France have a combined total of 20-30 foreign based military sites.
Is the U.S. domestic public welfare suffering to a far too great extent due to this military fixation? Are the weapons we deploy suitable for asymmetrical warfare? Does the use of advanced weaponry create far too many enemies?
Enough rhetorical questions already!
5
The military industrial complex is exactly what Eisenhower warned about in his last speech to the country. Mainly because for those companies to make money they need wars. What’s really sad, is those companies, Boeing, Lockheed, and others, not only make commercial products, but they get military contracts, AND tax breaks. So Boeing, Lockheed, Raytheon, have bellied up to the tax payer trough so much so that the tax payer is the loser. Any company that gets government contracts, shouldn’t get tax breaks, in fact we need to end corporate welfare, period.
This country is well on its way to being a third world country, thanks to Trumpo the clown and the GOP, McConnell, Ryan, and the rest.
1
Could this be a smoke screen to get us all worked up because of other important news he wanted passed over? I got it, two weeks of my tax dollars for his security at Margo Lago golf course equals my lifetime social security benefits...
17
I know the headline says $4.75 trillion budget.
But it's really the $8.6 billion budget - as in money for the wall.
This fixation with the wall will doom any rational consideration of this budget or for that matter, any budget this POTUS will submit to a divided Congress.
If this budget is considered a blueprint for our nation - the way Congress works is like the committee who wanted to design a horse but produced a camel. Or is it a donkey?
I know Congress demands a budget - if for no other reason than to tell the public what should NOT be in the budget.
This funding for the wall - over other huge budget items - is not even a drop in a bucket.
But it's the heaviest drop you ever saw.
1
The wall money is a distraction from the other disasters in the plan.
1
Deplorable budget, period.
Our nation is suffering and it’s going the way of Trump Steaks, Trump University, Airline and Casino’s- south. Into the giant orange garbage bin.
Such a terrible man and terrible consequence of the 2016 election.
9
What is the sound of one mouth flapping? I guess what we need is to replay the part of the stage "Peter Pan" where everybody has to clap real loud and wish wish wish to save Tinkerbell. That makes more sense really. TWO years this fool had a GOP Congress and spent most of the time golfing or dissing them for not worshiping him enough. The good news is that this is total humiliation stuff and this sad little burst of puffery pretty much the last gasp of a depleted gasbag.
6
The Real Question > Why does the President waste Time
in doing Budget at all.
Congress does the Real Budget and where to spending.
Just another Establishment thing that accomplishes nothing
but just waste's time..
2
That’s not true, first the constitution demands it, and second, Clinton submitted a budget, and balanced the federal budget 6 of 8 years, and left a SURPLUS, what republican president had done that, none, not one.
7
The budget reflects expenditures, without identifying relative benefits. To the extent that the items are investments with a future payback, they rightfully should be distinguished from sunken costs. So it worthwhile to spend money to prevent pollution to avoid the cost of cleaning up a future toxic dump. It is cheaper to spend money for diplomacy than to spend money to wage war. It is worthwhile to spend money on research ande education to foster inventions that will grow our technology base, and avoid a future where we are beholden to others for technology that might otherwise have developed here. The budget is ill conceived to the extent that it boosts the military while diminishing the state department. It cuts health and education, which have little impact on the total budget but are vital to our population. To deal with the growing deficit, it is far better to raise tax revenue and pay for health and education, than to attempt to lower the deficit through cuts to vital programs. Raising taxes through taxes on the top few percent will be a negligible on cost on relatively few people who can afford them, while supporting programs that benefit many.
6
Trump has already used Pentagon budget for a slush fund, realizing a loophole that allows him to re-allocate DoD money to what he wants.
In that he's giving DoD 5% more than they asked? And cutting Medicaid? Medicare ? I'd argue he's setting up to start laundering money through DoD.
7
"I’m not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid.”
- Donald J. Trump, May 21, 2015.
Yet another worthless campaign promise from Trump. It's almost as laughable as the one where Mexico would pay for his wall.
23
10. DJT's proposed budget is gung-ho military.
9. POTUS administers out of back pocket.
8. Auditioning by way of 2 hour entertaining stream of conscious.
7. He figures if worse comes to worse that the troops will be on his side.
6. In colloquial trumpisms he colorfully tells conservatives his 2020 revisions to the
Constitution.
5. He's not all that worried about moral bankruptcy either,
4. He knows his base really really luvs his acute absurdisms, especially
that terrific impression of a cripple.
3. The 20 campaign will be more shameful if he perceives losing to a
Democrat Party's generic socialist.
2. Refreshing cabinet choices, especially the lobbyists who are otherwise
incompetent to do any good.
1. And bless the Electoral College plus Vladimir mentor.
6
The Trump administration wants to reduce spending by cutting “waste, fraud and abuse." Let's all get together on Tuesday, November 3, 2020 and give them a helping hand by removing this administration guilty of waste, fraud, and abuse.
12
And where in this budget is any identifiable funding for infrastructure (like you promised!) and most particularly, job retraining for workers who will lose or have lost jobs to automation and the administration's fumbling the ball as other countries care about the economic well being of their workforce and are years ahead of us in this critical area. And hopefully you stashed some cash in an oblique slush fund (Trump is good here) to cover all the likely legal fees that shall come your way.
7
This budget is the fantasy orgy of ideas only an extreme right wing zealot could conjure in a deeply disturbed mind.
It is a refreshingly honest view of how the GOP views the world.
But most Americans are brain dead so I doubt they’ll even notice - much less remember when elections come around.
10
trump spends then goes bankrupt. How many times? He knows all about debt, he fails then walks away, irresponsible.
8
Military Budget: 5%
Education: -11%
Trump saying:
“I love the poorly educated”: priceless
9
$4.75?
Pathetic.
If I were doing wannabe dictator stuff, Ida at least gone for $5.
To drive democrats totally nuts.
And Ida put all that at the military and my generals to make sure they are ready to roll when I need em.
1
Mr Trump's own massive insecurities appear to be reflected in this budget. As if America does not have more than enough hardware already there is increased military spending because I am tough guy who talks tough and doesn't take any nonsense from anybody. Except when the odds are more even and I could genuinely get hurt and then my bone spurs play up.
The military vulgarity is paid for by massive cuts in welfare and environmental spending because these help either the weak or green tree hugging woosies. I can't associate with these groups because they speak to empathy, compassion, social awareness and these are weak traits which I must suppress. Now that is SAD.
2
Wait, is this what fiscally conservative looks like! Come on Republicans where are you now to protect the purse!!
10
I would love to see the trump proposal go through, just to enjoy the schadenfreude of watching the MAGA crowd suffer for their stupidity.
6
If I were foolish enough to be a republican, I certainly wouldn't admit it to anyone.
11
The additional military spending is so he can siphon off more $$ for the 'wall' - until Mexici pays for it.
Representative Steve Womack, Republican of Arkansas, is concerned that Trump's budget did not go far enough to reduce the growing national debt.
Rep. Womack is also among those who voted for the 2017 tax cuts that are projected to add over $2 trillion to our national debt in the next 10 years. The debt is growing because of what Womack voted for.
13
They came for my Medicare, and I was silent.
They then came for my Social Security, and I objected, but all were dead.
11
Who knew budgets were so easy.
10
Yes, just play around with numbers on an Excel spreadsheet and, presto, Nirvana!
2
The same day this article was posted, the White House put out a news release claiming that the proposed budget included massive spending cuts and would "balance the budget in 15 years." You would never know from the official announcement that it was the largest proposed budget in history.
More baldfaced lies from Individual-1 and his "best people." It would be laughable if it weren't so appalling. How can these people sleep at night? (... I know, I know, none of them are capable of a shred of guilt.)
11
If your budget requests have zero chance of passing you might as well stack it up with all your caviar wishes and champagne dreams. Donald Trump is just playing with everyone, enjoying his reign, doing what's fun for him, knowing his base is locked in and the rest don't matter. He's the cat with a mouse, just toying, waiting for the kill. He's loving the fight with Democrats, he can call them names, he can divide and conquer, disrupt, all the things that got him where he is.
Donald Trump is the master at defining himself. To all those who think they can beat him in 2020 there is only one path: if you can't define yourself you can't win. Whoever emerges as a potential opponent will soon find out the damage he can inflict and the voters will know who has the moxie to flip it off and define themselves with their own identity.
That's the real test for candidates; not playing his game but their own. It's more than just having a platform, it's selling it and so far Donald Trump is selling his platform. Yes, it's awful and disgusting and likely dangerous and yet, he's selling it like it's the second coming. Which to some, it is.
6
Isn't Congress responsible for the budget? You had better get busy.
2
If he wanted a vast increase in defense spending, and painful cuts to social programs, why did he give enormous tax cuts to billionaires, including pretend "billionaires" such as himself? Oh, right. Because he's a moron.
4
You say this budget has no chance, since Congress controls spending. But Trump can just declare a national emergency and do whatever he wants without Congress. The Dems might protest in the House but they'd need the GOP Senate to support them and we've already seen where that goes. When Trump suspends elections based on a national emergency, and the GOP backs him up, it will hardly be a surprise.
3
How does Trump think this budget will appeal to voters if it cuts Medicare? How is it good to make it harder for seniors to cover their health costs? This is just more proof that Trump doesn't care about ordinary (not filthy rich) people even while he says he does. This budget request is more of what's been driving this country down for years: more spending for the military and more neglect for what people need in order to have decent lives.
10
As usual, the federal government spends too much, no matter who's in charge. The Dems disagree only because their spending priorities aren't the same. We need more responsible people spending our money and we definitely need our elected representatives to understand what's in the Constitution.
1
Democrats:
Identify Trump voters who will be affected by these cuts. Get as many as possible to video their stories.
Anecdotes affect opinions, not data. And Trump voters who are betrayed are the best weapon.
14
#45 does not pay taxes like the rest of the people/corporations who paid to get him elected. The middle class will foot the bill. Vote like your life depends on the result, it does now more than ever!
12
Do we see this as a sincere budget suggestion, or maybe a "hail mary" act of desperation to distract attention from the many investigations and other blunders of a failed administration?
8
"Mr Trump's budget, the largest in federal history".... And thus his ego is stroked.
7
It is bigly.
2
4.75 trillion ÷ 325 million people = $14,615 per person per year.
2
Sure, let’s definitely cut funding for student loans and education. Why needs education anyhow? What foolish people we millennials are- we should have just asked our dads to hand us a few million dollars instead of wasting time taking out student loans. Duh.
18
Trump's every decision or thought is based solely on how it impacts him. He is incapable of any other mode of thought.
He is not dependent upon medical programs or Social Security.
He will be dead when educational deficiencies, environmental damage, ballooning deficit, and failing infrastructure have their main impacts.
The only significance of these issues (and anything else) is how they impact him politically, or otherwise.
Take a high-school dunce, remove conscience, empathy, and ability to tell the truth, add 2 barrels of narcissism and hypocrisy, shake well, and you'd have an improvement over Trump.
12
I support a balanced budget that does not pass on costs to further generations. This is so important. Live within your means. Using government to support current citizens is important, also.
5
Decrease health and safety protections.
Decrease environmental protections.
Decrease educational opportunities.
Decrease the State Department's budget, i.e diplomacy. But Increase war preparations.
Who does this make sense to? Not me. I'm more than willing to pay more taxes--I can afford it. But I want it to go helping Americans live better lives. Not helping them die.
35
@deb it makes a lot of sense to people who make money from war.
4
Classic give to the rich and take from the poor, once again. The gap continues to widen, something has gotta give and snap at some point.
17
This FT2020 budget from the WHis nothing more or less than a political statement. It has zero chance at passage. This nation's social priorities of education, healthcare and safety net programs are largely ignored or defunded, the State Dept budget is cut again while DoD budget increases beyond reason, and little to nothing of DT's promises on increasing good-paying manufacturing jobs from the 2016 campaign are being funded.
Have to wonder how naive the Trump base really is? Or is "Sticking It" to the college-educated liberals enough to choke down the lies POTUS told his base?
12
An appropriate proposed budget by a president who believes government exists only to carry out war and operate prisons.
10
If only the person serving as President had the ability actually to read the budget document...
8
Why are we increasing the Pentagon's budget at all? They fought being audited for decades (as required by law), and they had decades to prepare for the audit. Yet they failed miserably.
Trillions in assets and they are out of control. They lost track of 39 Black Hawk helicopters. They lost track of real estate holdings They've made "improper payments" of billions in just 2017 and 2018. They have billions in cost overruns. And they didn't even attempt to audit for fraud, of which there must be plenty.
We certainly shouldn't give the military any more funding that what is requested. The audit proves they probably don't even need the increase they've requested.
Why can't the Pentagon be held accountable for how they spend our tax dollars?
11
Lett's put out the idea that Mr Trump will be forced from office...and then jailed...if we can imagine it, we can believe it, and if we can both imagine it and believe it, then it's happening is also possible. What is the number of people who are beyond fed up, and can't wait for this??
6
Everyone needs Medicare and Social Security. Most of the country especially his rural white low-educated base cannot afford U.S. healthcare or health insurance; and have no retirement savings. So even his base cannot support these reductions. And more cuts to education. Because that's how you compete with the world by making your citizenry ever more stupid and unskilled. It's like driving the country off a cliff. They don't care, they'll all be dead anyway and their kids have these massive trust funds. Obscene.
14
Generally speaking I am an atheist but this man makes me believe the devil is real and he is here now. He certainly has infected the Republican Party and the thirty percent or so of Americans who hang on and believe every word he says.
14
Why are we spending so much on the military? We are already far and away the largest, strongest military in the world (though we seem to have a real problem winning small wars).
Q: Which is the largest air force in the world?
A: The United States Air Force.
Q: Which is the 2nd largest air force in the world?
A: The United States Navy.
Big, expensive equipment does not seem to be what wins small wars, though it makes defense contractors and the congress people they pay off with donations very happy.
10
It just blows my mind that Republicans support Trump who is constantly trying to cut education and healthcare.
Are these things that they don't want or need?
13
@Wilson
No. They need them. But they need to deny these services to minorities even more.
5
Reading through the comment section I just want to remind everyone that Russia has not stopped their campaign to divide us ahead of the 2020 election. Be conscious when responding to people that seem unbelievably naive. The more unbelievable the comment, the more likely you shouldn't believe that it is an authentic American voice.
We should remain civil, vigilant, and kind to one another no matter what our political differences may be. Exactly the things the Russians don't want us to do. Together Americans can combat their tactics by respecting one another and disagreeing without being disagreeable.
11
can we have some infrastructure? i remember that of his lying campaign
6
Classic. The true kleptosocialists - stealing from society to feed the avarice of the exclusive high-end socialists class at the top.
"$1.9 trillion in cost savings from mandatory safety net programs, like Medicaid and Medicare" and Social Security is the same as the tax cut giveaway to the rich in return for nothing! And now they want even more!!!
It's OUR Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, not something for trump and his ilk to simply take from us. Indeed, we pay for it out of every single paycheck! They want to steal pensions too! As Heston said about his pea shooter - From our cold dead hands!
Trump's new work requirements for working-age adults - because forcing people to work for sub-living wages is the American way, the capitalistic way for the uber wealthy to pile on the wealth even further on the back of workers.
What happened to infrastructure? Oh yea, infrastructure is the definition of a national investment - a socialistic investment that benefits everyone. Republicans can't have that! Unless it exclusively benefits the wealthiest, they attack it.
Too bad there aren't any taxes on kickbacks, bribes and emoluments that trump and Jared are taking in - we could balance the budget in no time.
12
Reduce revenue then spend more than ever. What a business genius...
8
I get it now. Spare Social Security by slashing its funding, and then also slash funding to the National Cancer Institute, National Science Foundation, Medicaire and Medicaid. That way, more Americans will die younger and not stress Social Security.
Makes perfect sense. Trump wants to reduce the population.
4
Prior to the 2008 market crash, $4.75 trillion would have been referred to as “four thousand billion,” and the sum would have been inconceivably higher than any plausible budget.
Conservatism has died with a sycophantic whimper.
6
If Mexico doesn't pay for the wall, if TrumpCare is not better and less expensive than ObamaCare, if those Carrier jobs did not return to the USA, then Trump has not kept his promises.
21
"... I love debt." Quote from Trump. He's dead serious. He lives to the beat of debt. He's a deadbeat.
17
@uga muga
Trump once said that ‘if you owe a little bit of money to a bank, the bank owns you. But if you owe a really lot of money to a bank, you own the bank’. Interesting. But apparently, if you owe a really lot of money to the Russians, it works the opposite. The Russians own you. When are his boot licker folders going to wake up?
9
Trump-Pence-GOP continue their assault on their loyal voters by way of continuing to reduce benefits that serve to help these unfortunate persons. Trump, despite proclaiming a 'war on opiate addiction' and 'retraining programs' has twice reduced funding for programs what address these very sad situations.
The question is: Will these Trump voters recognize their 'savior' is truly their oppressor?
15
Terrible budget!
Where is the funding to cover hush payments on behalf of adulterous elected officials to porn stars and Playboy models?
I didn't check the funding to religious organizations. I may be hidden there.
7
So the sick, hungry and disabled are the ones Trump picks to pay for the wall. People if we don't get REAL universal health care we as a country are doomed.
14
With his draconian cuts to Medicare, Social Security and many other programs that benefit most American citizens, Trump boldly reveals himself for who he really is. The question now is how many of his blind followers, who will be personally harmed by this budget, will care or even notice.
22
They will not care or notice.
6
Mr. Trump does love the poorly educated and Ms. Devos is doing her best to further that “love”.
SAD...
7
When the final election results were announced in November, 2016, I was concerned. Viewed in the context of our recent history, the idea of single-party government appeared to me a very real theat to democracy.
Back then, the idea of “single-person” government never crossed my mind.
Mr. Trump,
With regard to your recent budget proposal:
Do you take into consideration the opinions of ANY of your advisors, or do you just listen to the voices in your head?
Sir, with all due respect, you are unwell, not thinking clearly. Your current reasoning is not in the interests of the American people. You are the head of the executive branch of our government, not the executive branch itself.
You are surrounded by experienced, rational individuals employed in the various departments you oversee. Listen to them!
Stop flying the world’s most powerful nation and largest economy by the seat of your pants. Stop listening to the voices of your various personality disorders. Give the advice offered you by sounder minds a chance.
There is far too much at stake here to allow your ego to do any more damage to our democracy.
6
If you link this budget to the tax cuts, as any normal person would do with a President's major policy prescriptions, you might even give Trump points for audacity: within two years, an unthinkably massive corporate tax cut, an enormous ballooning of the deficit, followed by a frontal assault on social programs. Now that's quick work!
Unfortunately, this budget's audacity points only to Trump's total incoherence. He has neither interest in nor understanding of tax and budgetary policy.
27
Reality Check maybe a complete stop in buying imports by american people change spending budget. Between state an federal spending cuts on imports for government use would save trillions an creat millions jobs.As for border wall we should close boder an see how long mexico would fall . History repeats last mexican war usa came cleaned up mess.
Utterly insane! And utterly obscene!
Skyrocketing military expenditures (already at record highs!) and trashing education, the environment, Medicare, and Medicaid?
And to add insult to injury, Trump wants to slash Medicare and Medicaid to help pay for his insane, boondoggle "wall"?
Perhaps the only "silver lining" here is that this budget is SO insane, unbalanced, and unfair, and inflicts so much harm on almost all US voters, that maybe Trump supporters will finally wake up and smell the (burning) coffee!
This should be a call to arms for the rest of us -- the 99% "little people" -- to demand action from our legislators to make sure this monstrosity is DOA in Congress! And to start supporting change until Trump and his ilk are tossed out of office!
"$4.75 trillion budget ... increased military spending and sharp cuts to domestic programs like education and environmental protection ...
an additional $8.6 billion for construction of a border wall with Mexico and a a total of $1.9 trillion in cost savings from mandatory safety net programs, like Medicaid and Medicare."
19
The budget has of course the flavor of re-election of Trump. However, the country is getting tired of perpetual increases in defense budget beyond the cost of living. The increases in defense budget runs counter to the claims of troop pullout from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Also, no nuclear threat from North Korea as claimed by Trump. There may be a need to shift the funds within the defense budget based on priorities. such as increase in R&D but reduce in weapons procurement, but not to increase the overall budget. The old Republican slogan of strong on military and reduce deficit by cutting social programs are kind of distasteful now a days. The Republican party failed to bring Trump into real world, instead he sucked them like a giant hose into virtual reality. Too bad!
10
This clown is very skilled at throwing around other people’s money without a care. He will cut anything from people who may not have voted for him, and waste Our money on vainglorious nowhere projects. Time for his suckers to wake up...
18
I imagine that 10 % military pay raise in in there, right?
2
Donald Trump and republicans want to take your social security and Medicare away and your children’s schools too
Republicans stealing your tax dollars to fund a phony space force is direct theft from the American people to republican cronies.
These ads write themselves
22
Seems like a proposed $824 billion in Medicare cuts over ten years is a sure recipe for losing Florida. As close as FL was in 2018, Republicans still turned out more than Dems on Election Day. 2020 may not be the same, in fact, I doubt it will if Dems can keep the issue alive and campaign intelligently .
10
Seniors love Trump and won’t miss cuts to Medicare or Social Security.
@Jeff
That is the state that decided the perpetrator of the largest Medicare fraud in history should be first its governor, then its senator.
1
hey everyone, trumps budget for the most part will be dead on arrival when it gets to the House. thank goodness we have new leadership in the House, Pelosi will not give trump wall money nor will she allow cuts to medicare or medicade. hopefully there won't be any funds for trumps space force. at the end of the day there are many smarter people than trump. the budget will be what Congress agrees on not trumps wish list, which will be in line with where spending needs to be.
12
As a San Franciscan who spends a fair bit of time dropping into Waikiki coming and going, HOMELESSNESS is a National Disgrace. Both cities are in the finals for National Homeless Capital.
Why is there NEVER a line item in the national budget for public restrooms, mental health care, occupational training, and housing that will fix this HUGH
nationwide disgrace?
19
It’s often said that president’s budgets are statements of attitudes and objectives. It’s not hard to discern Trump’s. Cut programs that help Americans. Inflate the military budget and, by the way, make sure it has a big slush fund that can diverted to whatever the Trump wants (he has already demonstrated his lack of interest in the funding requirements agreed through bi-partisan Congressional action, and certainly a slush fund is easier to abuse that designated appropriations). And, now that the GOP’s tax cut is proving to be the lie that we expected - it’s not for the middle class and it will blow up our deficits - it’s time to get to work on the real agenda, destroying Medicaid, Medicare and ultimately Social Security.
He obviously thinks that we are stupid, and some are. And he clearly thinks that the GOP favors autocracy and Golden Rule, as in “he who has gold toilets rules.”
So what will the rest of us do about it?
12
Americans continue to support him. Can’t help but think Americans are in fact stupid.
2
Best for all that care about our country to NOT focus on immigration but on what this proposal does to the working class, the middle class and the elderly regarding education, medical, and social security pensions. Focus on how Trump impacts US voters! You can deal with immigration later.
7
Can't wait for the "We have a spending problem." warriors Mulvaney, Jordan and Meadows to explain why runaway deficit spending is now a virtue.
17
This is now beyond my comprehension. I can vividly remember when John Kennedy proposed his first budget, topping ot at $100 million. Trump is so far beyond the pale in so many respects that it's difficult to even imagine where this nation is headed.
11
One can see from Trump’s proposed budget why he managed to go bankrupt so many times. America cannot declare bankruptcy.
22
Trump wants to cut help to Seniors, he might as well call it "Socialist Security". I guess that is what his supporters want, less federal money for education, social security, medicare and medicaid. Be careful what you wish for, you may just get it!
10
You can tell exactly what he's thinking:
Cutting education and increased military spending directly impacts the number of ignorant, undereducated individuals that make up his base, while the military largely functions as a set of integrated communities with relatively little outside interaction compared to the average citizen, perfect for information control and propaganda.
Note: that is not meant as criticism of the military in any way, just acknowledging that members of the armed forces, by the nature of such organizations, tend to live in a different world from your average civilian, where, among many other differences, the primary social environment is composed of other such individuals. That's neither good nor bad, but it does increase the risk of being limited to exposure of information dictated by a specific political agenda.
2
Dismayed, and disgusted, seeing Auto Dealership Sales Agents with individual display cases enclosing all of their military ware.
You couldn't drown Trump's government in the Atlantic Ocean, much less a bathtub.
GOP, the party of the 3 Ws: Walls, Weapons, and Wealth.
7
A budget written by the Ghost of Ayn Rand.
The Trick:
-- Run as a (fake) Populist.
-- Govern as a Social Darwinist.
-- Run in 2020, hoping The Base never gets the difference.
10
@Hangdogit
She ended up on public assistance.. I suspect he's got the beginnings of cognitive impairment, his father ended up with dementia. A pox on both houses!
9
This budget makes absolutely no sense realistically or politically. Even if someone were to argue that Trump is attempting to create another confrontation with the Democrats over the wall funding to continue supporting his base, the political arguments against cutting Medicare and Social Security will cut Trump out in the end. If Donald Trump likes being beaten badly in the House and the Senate, this budget will definitely contribute.
It would not make sense for the military to ask for this size budget increase and for people to ask for a cut in their Social Security and Medicare. This is simply a lose-lose for Trump. This is truly the next step beyond unreasonable, not to mention how this is politically self-destructive for Trump.
11
Americans don’t mind cuts in Social Security and Medicare. Most Americans aren’t 65 yet.
1
Vote GOP if you want to give up your; healthcare; Social Security; Medicare; food stamps; any kind of Govt help if you get in trouble. Ray Sipe
11
Trump has already conflated military spending with his wall budget, but the Wall Budget is growing, too. Trump’s plan is to keep us IN, and The Wall will be bigger and better than the one torn down in Berlin! When he looses the next election, he’s not going anywhere.
He’s bought off the 1%, now he is going after the 99% that he will control by shrinking budget areas most important to the general population. The Manafort trial and subsequent sentence demonstrated that tax evasion by the 1% is rarely and only accidently detected, reluctantly and lightly punished.
Now going into the 3rd year, there is no mention of Infrastructure and Health Care. Anyone not already incarcerated for infractions much less serious than Manafort’s crimes won’t be needing much infrstructure and health care anyway. The far right wing GOP conspiracy avocates won’t see this one coming!
4
Unless Congress is a a medically induced coma, this budget will not pass; I think he says things to get a rise out of people.
13
What a horrific, painful and ruinous proposal for our country. Americans need to realize what this president, and indeed the Republican Party, intends for the United States.
Major cuts in so many of the programs that help average Americans, while at the same time cutting taxes for those already extremely wealthy, increasing an already highly bloated military budget (what in the world does the military need so much money for?), and significantly adding to deficits that Republicans intend to blame Democrats for.
Cuts in education, environment, social security, medicare...this is an abysmal budget that will cause harm for so many...while promoting the Republican plan of "starving the beast" (except those parts of the beast that benefit wealth and military).
When Trump is done, if there is a second term, we won't recognize our country.
5
First off, I will begin with my credentials. I am a former opioid addict currently in treatment. Without my state insurance or food stamps I would probably still be in active addiction or even possibly dead. I am in a transitional house and am looking for work.
The opioid epidemic is real and it is scary. Here in CT and specifically in Waterbury it is EVERYWHERE. I am very thankful for the help I have received from the state of Connecticut.
I am also disgusted by the rampant misuse of said help from the state of CT. I have been in treatment or housed with literally hundreds of people. Probably 70% of the people are abusing the system. People illegally cash out their food stamps and use the money for cigarettes or drugs. People say why would I get a job when the state will house me, feed me, and in many cases give me cash. The transitional housing is being used as a sort of hotel; with people literally laughing about what they are getting away with. One of the biggest fraudulent behaviors I have encountered is people applying for and receiving disability when they do not need it. People coach other people on what to say and what to do to successfully receive disability benefits.
The system is broken and needs reform. If the misuse and fraud was subtracted the people with real needs would benefit most. Unfortunately I have no idea how that could be remedied. Also, that's why this socialistic movement in America scares me. People will take advantage.
2
OK..OK....Let's not wait until September...
Suggest we skip the ad nauseam partisan rhetoric and allied/incessant drivel from the 4th estate & initiate "Mexican Wall Shut Down: the Sequel" immediately....
My brain already hurts enough!
3
Trump has gone full Republican swamp on this one.
He is listening to all of his Koch Brother/Chamber of Commerce advisors and Mitch McConnell on this. He is forgetting his core base.
Trump didn’t win by promising to cut social welfare programs, increase military spending, or even cut taxes. This is what the 17 other Republicans were promising.
Ann Coulter is right. If Trump continues on this path, he will lose in 2020.
11
He is destroying our country against no effective resistance. So be it. We're done for.
10
No effective resistance? This budget won’t get past the House, and the Dems well attack it with every fiber of their being in the press. Keep your chin up. It’s bad, very bad, but not as bad as you seem to believe! I’m one who sees Trump going down in flames in 2020, particularly now that his budget priorities are crystal clear. But I digress...
4
@Jeff The Democrats are not an "effective resistance" and haven't been for a long, long time.
1
Sure, like all Trump ideas, this one is stupid, unworkable, and destined for failure, so instead let's address a much more interesting topic: Why are there three men with video equipment taping a stationary set of proposed budgets on a table?
4
“..,the blueprint is a declaration of Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign priorities and the starting skirmish in the race for 2020, as both Republicans and Democrats try to carve out their messages to appeal to voters.”
How is it possible that Mr. Trump’s “base” might view the policies supported by this proposed budget to be in their best interests?
Are they in line to share in the profits gained by defense contractors? Do cuts to education, Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. Postal Service somehow work for them?
It seems that there are millions of voters who reason, “I support Trump, because I support Trump.” Period.
No more logic or reason need be presented.
14
So, just how much is $4.5 trillion? Based on a population of 330 million, that is $13,636.37 fro every man, woman and child in live sin the United States.
And, Trump wast to take nearly $400 billion out of the most vulnerable, in society, to bloat the military budget, add a "Space Force", and to build his wall. He also wants to sell off federal lands to development, and turn back teh clock to before the existence of the EPA. Oh, yeah, and to cut even more from health care.
Democrats already said this budget is DOA. Mu guess Libertarians also agree with Democrats, on this one. It leave people like McConnell and Graham who railed against deficits, during the Obama Administration, to look like giant hypocrites, that they are.
We know this is on course fro a full government shutdown, in just over six months. If that happens, we will certainly end up in a recession.
11
From the perspective of an administration that has nothing but disdain for government, this budget should be no surprise.
6
A wall must be built because his base demand it.
But the proposed budget would defraud them of everything else; education, social programs, future good employment.
It is so frustrating that they cannot see this.
11
I’m not so sure that many won’t see it once his budget is subjected to serious scrutiny and debate. We should ask the 40-year-old man with three kids working in a menial job in Kansas whether he wants to pay more for his parents’ health insurance. Is Trump and his Beautiful Wall worth THAT? These proposed cuts in Medicare just might be the smelling salt that finally splits Trump’s base. Then he’s toast regardless of whether Dems run democratic socialists (my preference) or moderates.
4
The ONLY thing the U.S. ranks #1 is Military Spending. The last figure I saw was a $658 BILLION Defense Budget, most going to the military. That's is $1.8 BILLION each day. A tank costs about $8.5 million EACH, the junk F-35 jet is now projected to cost $120 million EACH, and it doesn't preform to specifications. Each jet was originally budgeted to cost $60 million, an absurd cost at that number. The annual amount is more than the next 20 countries COMBINED. So what needless war is on the drawing board? Trump huffs and puffs at North Korea.
The roll of government should be the betterment of society in general, not ignore it or run it into the ground. Trump already has lowered standards for water, air quality and vehicles emissions. With Trump the U.S. could soon be among other third world countries. The U.S. ranks in the 20's worldwide in education, NOT #1. Recently I saw a report the U.S. was ranked 35 worldwide in the nations health, NOT #1. Cuba was ranked at 30th. It was noted Cuba aims at preventive medicine, The U.S. has other ideas. I'm a bit surprised Trump hasn't called for the dismantling of the Center for Disease Control. By his ACTIONS, Trump continues to apply a boot to the neediest people. Trump has demonstrated he only wants to better the top 2% in the nation. Who wants more???
6
@Tom Hennessy
The US ranks #1 in the gun homicide rate in the developed world.
You could throw in #1 in the percent of GDP spent on healthcare. That still leaves the US with inferior heath outcomes in areas like infant mortality and life expectancy, compared to other developed nations that spend around 33% less on their healthcare.
Trump has turned a moderate budget deficit of $585 billion under Obama, into close to $1000 billion in 2019, despite record low unemployment and moderate economic growth.
Trump and his fellow Republicans, with their unfunded tax cuts skewed to assist the mega rich like Trump, have made a long term structural budget deficit, a certainty. Now they want the less well off, to pay for the tax cuts given to the mega rich. Not so much winning for most Americans.
5
@Barry of Nambucca Hi Barry, I apologize for the oversight, I was running out of my allotted space. Yep, sure can't get enough guns in this country. I recall seeing a few years ago the U.S. ranked 43rd in infant mortality, just one spot behind Egypt. I believe many of those who voted for Trump believe what is stated on a bumper sticker is a plan, and not a slogan.
PS - I love your country. I visited while on R&R in 1970 from Vietnam.
2
It’s the biggest, most beautiful budget ever. And believe me, no one knows budgets like I know budgets.
10
Not just the current administration, we have it ALL WRONG on military spending !!!!!
3
No to the Trump 2020 budget. Increases Deficit; military and Wall spending. Cuts Social Programs. NO to the Trump 2020 budget. Ray Sipe
5
And why shouldn't he ask for more money? Congress keeps giving it to him, "resistance" Democrats & "fiscal conservative" Republicans alike gave him even more money than he asked for already:
https://www-m.cnn.com/2017/06/22/politics/congress-trump-defense-budget/index.html
2
increases in military spending for what? a Chinese invasion? another imploding country in N. Korea? whilst people at home face an opioid crisis caused by govt. backing ergo BACKED pharma companies? more people on the breadline than the late 1930s depression and welfare cuts? pretty sad show from a country that was once, for a while, a showcase of capitalist success but now just one of failure and selfishness for the elite
2
Trump is a shotgun wedding of the left's and the right's worst impulses.
He'll go down in history as the president who made Nixon look lovely.
10
Trump is only trolling with this “budget”.
3
If Sean Spicer had to announce Trump's morally and fiscally bankrupt budget today, he'd not only hide in the bushes, he'd broadcast from a secret bunker!
11
trump will convince his idiot supporters that increasing the military budget and cutting Medicare and Medicaid is the right thing to do by saying a version of: "If the military doesn't protect you, you won't grow old enough to continue with/access Medicare."
8
He’s continuing Obama’s bankrupting of America.
Obama doubled our debt - from $11 trillion to $20 trilliOn with ineffective stimulus packages and wasteful wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East.
Now, the moron in charge has increased an already bloated Defense Dept budget to $750 billion - and is cutting services.
We are projected to have deficits until 2034!
It’s insane to say the least - we’re paying $350 billion in interest on that debt - that number’s only going up.
The President and Congress have been charging our children’s future into oblivion- they will never be able to pay down the debt - our dollar someday will be worthless.
It’s a financial crisis of untold proportions- no one even understands the gravity of all this debt.
The federal government, most states and most cities have record debt (NYC - $116 billion) - and most are running deficits.
We’re bankrupt - liabilities far exceed assets.
But don’t worry - we have a money tree called the Fed - they’ll keep increasing the money supply to pay our debts - Monopoly money.
4
Obama was responding to a once in 2 lifetime financial catastrophe. In this economic boom time the budget should be better than balanced like Clinton did it.
11
@AL
Clinton was able to balance the budget after having to revise it downwards four times before a Republican controlled Congress passed it. It took both branches of the government to get it done - one Democrat, the other Republican.
The way things are going now, that will never happen. There’s no fiscal discipline in Washington..because it’s not politically popular. It’s all about getting votes and staying in office.
We’re headed towards a financial collapse if we don’t stop spending.
Not going to happen. But interesting to see so obviously how Trump does not care one bit about the average American and is only playing to his wealthy base: hard to think that cutting Medicare and Medicaid could be good re election strategies.
10
My household pays $22,000 per year to social security and Medicare and we don’t claim either at this time. We are too young. You betcha I expect them to be there for us- this will be the real civil war the conservatives talk about. However I have no idea who would fight for the right to cut these programs.
16
The rich who were behind Trump tax cut are also behind this as they don’t need Medicaid and social security.
10
Remember when the GOP used to be known as 'Deficit Hawks'? Now, it's more like 'Deficit Dodos'.
17
I am shocked at the level of hutzpah it takes to gut social programs to boost the military in non-wartime and build a wall that will only serve as a monument to Trump’s ego. And his base is OK with this? Will it draw big cheers?
His huge cuts to the student loan program and Medicare and Medicaid are particularly egregious, and he’s obviously hoping to do away with the EPA entirely. The work rules for those collecting UI benefits are cruel (it’s not nearly enough to survive until finding another bad job), and the president would revel in halting sanctuary cities.
And the nightmare continues. Trump has far too much power.
16
@Peter ERIKSON Non-wartime?
3
&Mandrake. Spot on. It sure seems like we’re angling toward war with a 23% cut in the State Department (diplomacy) and a, what, 10% or so increase in the defense budget.
1
@Mandrake Yes, haven't you people noticed it's perpetual war-time--whether Republicans or Democrats are in office. Wake up, people.
For decades republicans reduce exemtions or eliminated exemtions for citizens in the lower income bracketts while at the same allowing more perks for rich jerks and reducing their tax liabilities. To be nice, not all rich folks are jerks but that is still no reason for the government to give all of the spoils of capitalism to the rich folks while there are tens of millions of citizens who get short changed on having a decent living every time they cash a paycheck.
6
While there's little chance this atrocity of a budget will pass, it does reflect the contempt Trump has for America's most vulnerable citizens.
22
Trump claims good relations with Russia, a new trade deal with China, which means lowered tensions, open lines of communication with North Korea and the feat of ISIS.
If you believe him, which of course is always hard to do, what could possibly justify spending nearly a trillion dollars on the military?
The only plausible reason is that he plans to start another war somewhere, probably with Iran.
In which case Congress should those out his budget and institute impeachment proceedings.
7
@Drspock: Should, but impeachment would be a futile gesture as long as the Senate has Trump bootlickers as the majority.
This "YUGE" budget request should surprise no one.
After all, this is a president who has no problems spending other people's money -- especially American taxpayer's.
Think not?
Consider how much he has spent jetting to Mar-a-Lago and all his rallies ever since taking office, then multiply it to include all his family members, staff and anyone else who wants to go along for the (free) ride.
And don't forget how much we're going to be paying for new nuclear arms now that we've abandoned the I.N.F. Treaty.
So kill the environment, take away affordable health care, ditch Medicare and Medicaid just to fund a border wall with Mexico and claim this is making America great again?
The 2020 elections can't come soon enough.
6
Maybe the Don will declare a budget emergency. Problem solved.
7
CA, you are absolutely bang on. How can our children "be best' when we cut the budget for their education? as it is --we are behind in the world for Math, Science, geography, Languages. Its like we have turned back the clock with this Administration.
To enable our country to do well means INVESTMENT in our people for them to do well.
Frankly--fed up of constant demoralizing from Potus, Fox and friends and the Republicans who vilify people and put targets on people who speak up--first it was Nancy Pelosi now AOC who next?
Being in a democracy allows for free speech, just because people think differently does not mean they are "evil" yet we see this everyday. The way in which this is conducted nationally affects how we treat each other at work and how e people "target" each other for having a different approach. In fact, having more than one way to do things brings strength and for most of us, having more than one pair of eyes, makes you see things and gives perspective.
Lets have a discussion on moving the country forward not backwards.
6
Trump has an amazing talent for helping himself to huge amounts of other peoples' money.
14
Trump's "Tax Reform" tax cuts, and Trump's budget show that Trump really *is* "The King of Debt". Too bad he doesn't have to be the one ending up paying it back. No more pretense, no more pretending that 'Republicans are fiscally prudent.' The record shows that they are not, have not been for the last 40 years, and are not even trying any more... just like the fantasy that 'Republicans respect the Constitution more than liberals.' when the kowtow to Trump's xenophobic bigotry, and support his end-run around Congress's Constitutional role, and actively avoid their Constitutional duty to 'advise and consent' on a highly qualified Supreme Court nomination... no more pretending that Republicans and Trump are not the most clear and present danger to America's democracy in generations. Own it, Republicans... and reap the consequences.
3
In 2016, America put in charge a "Billionaire" who hired other billionaires and assorted wannabees to administer the Federal government.
In 2017, the billionaires (donors) orchestrated an incredible tax swindle on the American public.
In 2018, the billionaires consolidated their power through judicial appointments and wholesale regulation rollbacks.
In 2019, the billionaires are trying to convince the public that they, the public, have too much, and we, the rich, not enough. "Cuts to the commons must be made," they say, to reign in the immense deficits we just created.
The reality-show theater continues on while the propaganda machines churn.
The goal is to use division, misinformation, and outright lies to convince the public to vote against themselves or stay home altogether.
Upwards of 40% of the public are supportive of this nonsense.
It is working.
9
Does Trump want to lose his job? His actions suggest so.
8
Plenty of money to kill people with war toys; plenty of domestic cuts to kill people at home.
10
Old Expression:
"A fool and his money are soon parted"
New Expression:
"A fool and America's money are soon squandered"
5
So is it Infrastructure Week yet?
17
What? Has Trump become a spendrift Democrat?
Let the Republican party dishown him immediatly.
He is worse than Clinton or Obama. He is a menace to our finances.
Stop him on his tracks or he will ruin us all, Democrats and poor of us, Republicans.
1
Looks like Trump is trying to harm the base Trump voter more while trying to please his Wall Street and military base.
6
Unless the citizen of this country release that the Pentagon have over 800 military bases to support around the world, the floated defend budget will continue to rise to maintain these activities. The rest of the world have no more that 30 military bases combined.
Like dividing a apple pie, one segment have a larger portion and the other gets to be smaller. The sacrifice comes from education, research, health care, entitlement program like Medicare and Social Security which are designed to help and benefit all citizens.
Your children and my children will pay this hefty price if the current magical and irresponsible policy to swirl downward and out of control. Trump's enablers, 80 % Republicans/evangelicals continue to use " Thought and Prayer " to deflect or divert the real issue. At the end, thought and prayer is not going to work.
Vote 2020.
2
The deficit grows by the second and this man dares to propose a budget like this?
Either he is on drugs or needs the ones he is on to be changed.
12
What Trump needs to do is reverse the tax cuts he approved for the wealthy and corporations to help reduce the deficit. Instead he chooses to increase the military budget and set aside billions for wall while taking away from Medicare, Medicaid, education, the environment and the American people. So disheartening and deplorable…..you can’t make this stuff up
7
We have heard over and over, “elections have consequences” indeed! Here it is for us, in black and white. Donald wants MORE money for the Military! He wants to CUT Medicare and Social Security which are FUNDED by American Tax payers, STAY AWAY from cute to these two programs, Donald!!!
Also, I hope the Democrats elected in a huge Blue Wav in 2018, will reign in spending to the Military! The money is needed in Small Towns across America to buoy local hospitals, fund schools and services for Americans.
Finally, what about our CRUMBLING infrastructure?!
8
Whatever happened to the Tea Party? I can remember not long ago when the mere mention of increasing a budget caused them to go in to cardiac arrest. Course they used to be the law and order party and used to hate Russky's.
We're no longer in Kansas, Toto.
14
Nice to see the "richest man ever, smartest ever, and best-educated ever" still whacking the most-needy, loyal Military and government retirees, and most other Americans while spending like drunk who just cashed Daddy's trust fund allotment check bragging how great he is - the greatest ever (believe me via anther 6 am tweet I guess). No wonder failed so much - this budget example proves my point.
5
As with all Republican economic policies and budgets, this is idiotic. Trump and the GOP want to slash and burn at our paltry safety net while engorging the Pentagon beyond even what it wants. They want to cut Medicare, under the stupid slogan of "waste, fraud, and abuse" which may sound catchy coming out of Donald's mouth, but is strangely, never clearly defined. Cutting student loans, cutting at the post office, cutting after-school programs, cutting Social Security. I see Trump wants "work requirements" for recipients of food stamps and federal support. Yet, I don't remember any "work requirements" for the 1% who heisted $1.5 Trillion of our tax dollars last year.
Republican economic policies are both sadistic and stupid. How can anyone, outside of the 1%, support this garbage?
3
Paper Trump. I doubt he is actually worth anything but fake numbers on a balance sheet. He does not know how to do anything but spend money and 'rip people off'.
5
Another box checked on Putin's punch list.
9
Things could be worse. Sarah Sanders just made Michael Cohen a fixture, by demanding that the press stop talking about him. Go Mikey!
6
Trump is a shambles of a fake news ex gambling casino owner President. MAMIDA Make America More In Debt Again and on the backs of the poor and disabled.
5
The president couldn’t be any more wrong about the needs of the country, its citizens, and its relationship with the rest of the world.
Real national security means big investments and growth in education, health care, infrastructure, research in all fields, the environment, diplomacy for the good of all, and real legislation for human rights and business regulations that promote productivity, safety, reasonable profits, and worker rights and benefits.
This administration has got it all backwards all day, every day, from day one.
651
I think your comment should go down in history!!
You have summed it up quite accurately.
..and regardless of what the Trumpublicans say - IT IS HARD COLD FACTS!!!
Bless you. Thank you. From your finger tips to God's ears ...now if only the brainwashed 3rd of the country had the ability to understand facts.
God willing...until then, keep speaking (writing) truth to power!!
..
btw- truly comforting knowing good people of earth still have a voice
..and God bless R.B.G., may she continue as long as we need her!
46
@CA This budget explodes the deficit and kills Social Security and Medicare. All great platforms for the Democrats. GOP; Pro business. Dems; Pro people. Ray Sipe
39
@CA: "Real national security means..."
What is authorized by the Constitution?
What is a "reasonable profit"?
"Big investments" means spending taxpayer money.
7
"...reduce work-study funding as Education Department officials tweak the program to offer more career-oriented jobs for low-income students."
The implication of this comment is that lower-income students don't deserve the opportunity to attend college. It's not clear whether that motivation in in this budget, or an interpretation made by the author.
Either way, our country should be concerned with educating our best and brightest, not our richest (who already have adequate financial support)
5
Medicare is paid by everyone in the country throughout their working lives, so is Social Security. Make some changes to make them more effective, but don't reduce them.
The reason Mr. Trump wants to up the Defense budget is the same reason he is using the Defense Budget now to build his wall. He probably thinks that a bigger Defense Budget would give him more control over discretionary funds.
Mr. Trump needs to be impeached and kicked out of office, before he bankrupts this country, as he did himself six times.
5
This budget does nothing to strengthen America. This is a budget written by the ultrawealthy who have--let's admit it--no loyalty to the United States or its highest ideals.
10
“The free market” is a figment of the imagination. An economy (GDP) is the sum of consumption, investment and Government Spending. Republicans like to boost Government Spending by hiring soldiers and buying expensive weaponry from defense contractors. Democrats, by contrast, choose to spend on things like teacher salaries and healthcare. Despite the capitalist vs. socialist ballyhoo, there is no difference in the underlying approach. Republicans like government to spend on certain types of things and Democrats another. Vote accordingly.
3
Banana republic here we come.
Remember to thank a conservative or Republican when we get there.
9
Here we go again America. Keep lying down and tRUMP will keep poking us. Where are the Good Republican Americans ?
Isn't time up for tRUMP to be out ?
3
The National Institutes of Health(NIH) which is the major Federal medical funding agency only funds 19% of the medical research applications. Dr. Collins, the Director of the NIH said that doubling the Institute's budget would give us awesome medical science. Newt Gingridge wrote op -eds asking that the National Institutes of Health's budget be doubled.
We should lower the medical spending by doing research into ways of preventing and curing illnesses. The president's proposal to cut the NIH budget is foolish and a disgrace. It shows that he does not knowi what he is doing in in this field.
4
Can democrats have a better response than this is "a gut-punch to the American middle class," please!?
Yes, its a "slap in the face" or whatever saying you choose. Can the messaging become potent and describe what it actually does? This proposal is a scamming working people. People will go hungry if a budget like this gets adopted. People will die due to lack of medical care, heating during the winter and cooling during the summer. Find people who would actually be affected who would draw sympathy. And juxtapose that with millionaires and billionaires who stand to gain from this budget. And go hard. Stop being wimps.
Chuck, go talk to AOC about how to message this. The establishment democrats really need to get a clue. Their responses are so lackluster. They can't capitalize on Trumps gifts and its pathetic.
6
He needs to be removed immediately! His tax plan, supposed reduction has tripled the tax burden on the poor and the needy! He has taken away ALL our deductions to save more money on his taxes! To help his cronies! His taking away the property tax deductions is unconstitutional! It is now double taxation! He plays a continuous smoke and mirrors game and his absurd Christian followers can’t see this, because they have NO critical thinking skills! The wall is simply meant to put money in the pockets of his friends, steel and construction magnates! And to benefit him by kick backs! He is enriching himself and his family at our expense! And the brainwashed blue collar white workers just can’t see this! They must’ve felt very oppressed under Obama, or were just plain racist and couldn’t stand a black man over them! I just don’t understand it! Trump lacks all compassion for the poor and the needy! A breaking story today is about the Chinese Spa owner and her influence w Trump at Mar-a-Lago! These are the kind of immoral people he consorts with and Christians seem to think he is Christian! But what is the point of commenting or posting here??? It is preaching to the choir! How, can we and media like the Times reach the white, blue collar Trump supporter, when Franklin Graham is brain washing them with incessant tweets, e mails, Messenger messages! That’s the challenge!
4
Look
Promises Made
Promises Kept!!!
Mexico is paying for the already completed wall.
MediCare is untouched.
MediCaid is untouched.
Social Security is wholly intact.
Tariffs wipe out the deficit.
The Budget will be balanced in the 15th year of the Trump Error.
Coal is king.
Manufacturing jobs at places like Carrier and GM are flooding back to Mother America.
oh yeah....corruption in Washington has been ended.....except for Ross, DeVos, Miniuchin, Ivanka, Incitatus Kushner, and Dear Leader Donnie himself.
Trump: Even Greater than Lincoln.
3
I'm 60 years old. My husband is 69 and works a physical, full time job as an Industrial Mechanic. He recently had a heart attack and we've got to pay out-of-pocket $11,000 to hospital and physicians. Our income is less than $47k a year. We have no savings. Our HSA has $3600 in it. We contribute 200/m that now must go to pay the remainder of the 11k medical bill. It will take us 3 years to pay it off. In the meantime nothing will be going into what the GOP expects middle class Americans to rely on to pay our medical bills -- their version of a health care plan. And now Trump wants to cut Billions from Medicare after he said he wouldn't touch it. Under Republicans, growing old gracefully in America is purely for the wealthy only.
26
Very sorry about your husband’s heart attack. It’s cruel that the richest nation on Earth cannot support our Seniors! Let’s get the vote out on 2020 and vote Donald and his greedy Republicans out office!
6
The War Department always gets more $$$ that it wants or needs. Why is it that nobody ever complains too loudly?
Cut Defense and allocate $$$ where it is needed: education, healthcare, environment, etc
The loud mouth is all that he is. A fraud without judgment.
12
Truman's spokesman stood in front of the press and claimed "the cuts" Trump is negotiating with Pharma will cover the $845,000,000 he is proposing to remove from the Medicare budget. I'm sorry, but my Medicare doesn't cover prescriptions, that's why most everyone has to purchase supplemental coverage from an insurance company. If congress approves anything resembling this budget they can expect a catastrophic reaction from voters. Get it from the 1 percent!
5
@Brucer
You really shouldn't insult Truman that way !
2
If you came from Mars- and someone had to explain what was wrong with the world.. The take away message is that a DEMENTED person by the name of trump was 'trying' to unravel the world as we know it...supporters of this person trump are the ones who have nothing - usually lack an education, cant read, cant spell additionally 'government officials' who support this dangerous imp are usually from states where the above mentioned people live.. His current plan to rob the people who need support the most - and take that money and enrich himself and his family ( one of the most hated ones in our country). Will we let that happen ?? ofcourse NOT !
5
Once again I am amazed at what the wealthiest country on Earth, at a time when our economy is said to be the strongest one on the planet, already at theoretical full employment, cannot seem to be able to afford for its citizens. We have an increasing number of impoverished people and hungry citizens. We have a crumbling infrastructure. Our education system keeps deteriorating and healthcare opportunities for too many are out of reach. Too many live day to day. Too many work at wages that aren't close to livable. All because we can't seem to afford it. This leadership - government and corporate - is disgusting.
10
So Democrats are the big spenders? More fake news from the Fake Right.
That the largest military budget the world has ever seen, by far, is getting more tax dollars just proves the Right are mean spirited little boys at heart that like shiny toys that go boom. Often with collateral damage to people, society and other cultures. The people the booming toys damage include our own soldiers. Take some time and read the 50 year old Slaughterhouse-Five, written by a combat vet. A futile request though, seeing many on the Right don't take the time to read much outside their bubbles.
10
@EC Speke
Many on the Right would never get the point of the Story
they lack any form of Comprehension
2
Exactly! This Trump Budget should be a Democrat Campaign ad! Let’s tell America the truth.
2
This will turn the next generation into slaves to pay this off.
7
Need to get Mexico on board to pay for it.
3
Another delusional Trump fantasy.
Russian Mobsters don't write the U.S. Budget.
6
What kind of person supports a polluted environment and stupid children?
10
Republicans.
7
@Sonu
Yep, keep them stupid and fill their heads with fear and lies and they will always vote against their best interests (voting Republican).
2
This is a guy who has spent his life with everything around him teetering. Bankruptcies, law suits, crime, shady loans. Every new project to try to plug a hole in his leaking dam. The Presidency is just another opportunity that he *must* exploit to try to keep his little empire afloat. He will do anything, say anything, betray anything or anybody, sell out his country when convenient to keep his road show from completely falling apart. It's just business as usual for him.
Who better that evangelicals like Huckabee Sanders et al with their bottomless pit of mulligans to enable this doomed mega-gamble and witness this dam rupture all the while fantasizing rapture on their road to selective salvation.
6
Here is our reality show and pretend president playing with our country. He has no idea what he is doing and his actions have only two main goals; get ego strokes as often as he can and make money; lots of it. Trump does not care what he does to the economy until it reaches his wallet. So he asks for more wall money just because he knows it will cause a strong negative reaction with those not in his small camp. He keeps the dust flying while he sets up monetary deals with foreign countries. Which US citizen would give this gangster money? He must seek funds outside the US of A. He will screw up as as many government functions as he can before he leaves the office. Trump loves playing in the Billion and Trillion dollar arena that the presidency affords him. We made a terrible mistake and we may be paying for it long after our children have left the nest. He would not know a budget if it bit him. But big numbers look good and work in a reality show.
3
He can always declare a national emergency to force it into law.
1
This is what you get from electing an internet troll to the White House. All to inflame, all to bully, all to give the only people who will keep him out of jail what they really want: to put down the professional classes that have treated them with condescension (no matter the real cost to themselves). Never underestimate the power of humiliation: it's what's driven a rich kid from queens whose always felt second rate to the presidency.
7
Ah, fiscal conservatism at its finest.
4
And so trump continues the warmongering—waste, fraud, and abuse on an unprecedented scale directed toward killing others. I am not surprised at all. People with little self-confidence seek to project strength with lots of guns and warships.
The Democratic candidates will be truly clueless if they do not destroy him for this profligate deficit spending on what is already the strongest military in the history of the world.
2
Free money for the Rich forever! Thank you, Conservatives!
6
Elect a clown, expect a circus. I'm sure this has been stated before, but it bears repeating!
6
If "The Wall" was the United States Postal Service the President would be required to fully fund the entirety of the project upfront some $25 billion dollars.
At best this is a Presidential sleight of hand but its probably worse.
I don't know of any utility in writing comments in the NYT where my audience will be those that see their country dying every minute of every day.
Only truth can save America and the truth is no longer just inconvenient it is very painful.
I don't know how the GOP can be any more forthright in their contempt for the America that sought to give all its citizens the rewards the founders believed could create a society that evolved to better the lives of its citizens.
I am reminded that so many Americans know the story of the good Samaritan and don't know the Samaritans were Jews who didn't believe in the temple and smeared excrement on the portal to register their contempt for Kings and their monuments.
I was raised to see good in everyone, I understand the parable of the good Samaritan, I lived in Samaritan America but I love New York and I love Wheeling.
I understand the challenges of short fingered vulgarians and they have my sympathy but I don't want to live in their world. When will the people that make America work understand that sharing is not part of the education in that other America?
I don't know how else to say it but I love my brother Jesus and Donald, Mike, Mitch, Mitt, Bibi and Ted are not our friends.
3
Trump exceeds all previous known record not just in ridicule (which US president has ever invited so much of it ? which US president has ever been shown, to everybody's agreement, as a toddler in diapers ?) but in cruelty.
Let the poor suffer, so long as the rich don't pay, is the obvious motto of this brazen display of inhumanity.
4
What a wise plan! Why spend money on those 60% lousy socialist victims, feeling entitled to get help with health care, medication, education, housing, or even infrastructure, clean drinking water, green plans, etc. when we can provide my friends with a the biggest – oh, what am I saying – the most greatest waste of money, spending it on all kinds of glittering trinkets? Yes, that is how I will get RICH - ha ha little joke here, and you are going to get great again :-)! Believe me!
4
Imagine the head exploding reaction of Obama delivered a 4+ Trillion dollar budget. The amnesia of GOP minds addled by too much Jesus is truly amazing. I wonder if the hypnotic "Lock Her Up" aids in the collective GOP memory deficits.
4
And who paid for the pretty wrapping on this monstrosity? US.
2
Your link is to the 2019 budget. Oops.
Did he ever get his Nobel Prize for most bankruptcies by a cheater?
2
I guess death panels are okay as long as it is Republicans on the panel.
Sorry Granny.
4
The current administration is such a joke. Trump is a clown who makes promise he can't keep because he knows nothing about being financially responsible. He'll just consider the US another one of his financial casualties before moving onto something else that he can praise himself about... until it too fails.
4
This is a proven theorem! Never forget.
Whatever trump says, he means the exact opposite!!!!
Setting the Way-Back Machine...
To the May 7, 2015 tweet: “I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid.”
To the December 2016 Tallahassee, Florida rally: “We are going to save Social Security,” “[Hillary] is going to cut your Social Security and your Medicare.”
Now that the top 5% have received their Tax Cut Jubilee, trump tells us how he plans to increase his personal war machine.
"The Medicare changes would save $846 billion over a decade, in part through curbing “waste, fraud and abuse.”
You know, just like all that "rampant voter fraud" he was going to fix.
"The administration also proposes spending $26 billion less on Social Security programs, including a $10 billion cut to the Social Security Disability Insurance program.”
This should be trump's death knell and a wave for the Democrats to surf all the way into the White House.
Let’s see what they do with it!
3
What is wrong with this country? Are the Republican so scared of Trump the maniac that they have completely surrendered to him? Do they not care about anything except free money for the rich and no abortions for the poor?
This is just ridiculous. Where is the person brave and and smart enough to tell Trump-“shut up old man. You’re crazy”.
I feel like giving up. I know that’s what they want but this exhausting.
4
He is enriching himself and his associates at the expense of everyone else. This budget will directly do great harm to much of his base but they won't admit it. Congress must reject this and remove the narcissistic idiot from office ASAP.
3
More for military spending. Does this include "Space Force," an endeavor that probably has more to do with Trump's ego than anything we truly need? That is, his need to attach his name to something else besides buildings, products etc. I've seen this act before--"They're out to get us"....."you're not a 'real patriot" if you want to cut defense...."you're against the military if you're not a hawk" and on and on. Heard it/seen it for all my sixty-nine years. Yes, of course we need a strong military. Not speaking pompously, but it always has been and always will be an easy political ploy/appeal to the many simple-minded out there.
238
@Jim Yes, it includes funding for the "Space Force." Our Dark Helmet wants to be the Intergalactic Ruler.
40
@Jim: Space Farce.
26
@Anne
You beat me to it, Anne!
14
This budget reveals what trump wants for America.
He wants to restrict and reduce our:
- funding & access to education (to hurt students/schools)
- ability to afford health care
- environmental safety (safety of environment, and of us)
- foreign aid (which is very cheap, and is "preventive")
- safety programs across the board
- reduce taxes on the rich / super-wealthy
He wants to increase:
- military spending / defense industry largess
- spending on his "wall" that he said Mexico WILL pay for
SUMMARY:
trump thinks like a robber-barren.
He wants an America where rich can steal from poor.
He wants small/no government, so it can't protect us.
6
"Trump Proposes a Record $4.75 Trillion Budget"
Trump's Plan includes big cuts for health programs for the poor, elderly and disabled.
Anyone who is a Trump supporter and who fits in the description of health programs for "the poor, elderly and disabled" better take notice. This is a repeat of last years republicans writing of several attempts at a replacement health care plan, but all of them would have taken any health care plan away from over 23 MILLION Americans.
If you need a health care plan, you had better change your support to a Democrat. Trump and the republicans don't care a flip about you and their failed attempts last year and now this latest is proof positive.
341
@RetiredGuy
But what about emails? Benghazi? Pro-choice? 2nd Amendment rights? Immigrants? People won't give a fig about their health care if it means a brown guy gets a free handout.
39
@RetiredGuy
But what about emails? Benghazi? Pro-choice? 2nd Amendment rights? Immigrants? People won't give a fig about their health care if it means a brown guy gets a free handout.
1
Americans don’t like the poor, the elderly or the disabled.
17
This budget may have zero chance of passing but it certainly underscores how insane the “president” and the Republican Party has become. Isn’t it quite enough already. When do the rest of us, the 99% get to share in the countries riches? When does our democracy actually function as a representative democracy? When will Americans wake up and stop the Republicans from robbing us blind day in and day out? I. Have. Had. Enough.
5
Trump's budget cuts EDUCATION by more than 10% -- but hey, who cares about our future generations as long as we have a wall...???
3
This budget makes absolutely no sense pragmatically or politically. Even if one were to argue that Trump is attempting to create another showdown with the Democrats over the wall funding to continue fueling his base, the political arguments against cutting Medicare and Social Security will drown Trump out in the end. If Donald Trump likes being beaten badly in the House and the Senate, this budget will do the trick.
The military didn't ask for this size budget increase and nobody asked for cut in their Social Security and Medicare. This is simply lose-lose for Trump. This is truly the next step beyond crazy, this is politically self-destructive for Trump.
218
@Bryan
Hope springs eternal.
25
@Bryan this is another of Trump’s shooting someone on 5th Ave. He is sticking it to people who vote for him just to show that he can and not lose their support. He’ll cripple farmers, watch industries close, stifle up to Putin, and take his fans’ health care and education away, and laugh as they all repeat his slogans and cheer him on. Pssst, Trump supporters: he has nothing but contempt for you. Look!
39
@Bryan the military didn’t ask for the increase, the owners of the war dept. contractor companies did. They’re not making enough money on a more than $700 billion a year budget. That’s who Trump is playing to.
31
This is the Republican idea for the budget: tax hikes for the middle class, medicare cuts, massive defense spending, mandatory work requirements for those on welfare assistance, no tax increases on the wealthy, and unsustainable deficits. Why is it that budget deficits are only a concern when Democrats are in the White House? We still want to see the president's tax returns.
303
@Sally - Agreed. And why do we need more military spending? DOD has savings from canceling the military exercises in Korea, reducing the number of troops in the Middle East, reducing commitment to NATO, etc. They need to be audited if they are wasting those savings.
2
In the early 70’s our currency was backed by gold.
Today our currency is backed up by our military might.
Nothing to worry about folks.
1
It has been reported in NYT and other places that the whole republican strategy behind huge budget deficits is to justify cuts to health and social security programs. There should be no surprise here. The real question is, "What are we going to do about it?" From where I sit, in this rich country, all citizens should have access to affordable health care. Whether that is in the form of Medicare or subsidized private health plans.
I would also hope that huge budgets that don't move the country forward are a waste of the paper they are printed on, and wouldn't it be nice to have a reasoned conversation and debate? Congress - let's put the gamesmanship aside and get to work.
3
Thinking Congress should make some rules about the border that make it more difficult to steal people's land through eminent domain and ignore environmental policy so that WALL may not go up by simply demanding more funds or stealing them from other sources. They could slow this down by insisting he obey existing environmental regulations and making CBP request prior Congressional approval before WALL construction. This needs to come out of the budget process.
Luckily we have Midas Trump in charge of our "rocket fuelled" economy, so what could possibly go wrong? Like the casino business, this is a "can't lose" proposition.
1
Gosh what happened to affordable health care for all? What happened to infrastructure rebuilding? So trump would further starve seniors on Social Security and give the Pentagon more money than they asked for. And as for students, let them take on more debt. Sounds reasonable.
7
Mario Cuomo once declared that you campaign in poetry and you govern in prose. That is getting elected changes the equation. And harsh reality sets in. Trump took a different approach. He campaigned in reckless and irresponsible promises and now governs in reckless and irresponsible programs.An easy choice. Take the Cuomo approach.
1
"...and it envisions deep cuts to programs that Democrats hold dear."
Stop framing entitlement programs as something that only Democrats support. The public overwhelmingly supports these programs. You know, as in BOTH sides, a.k.a. pretty much everyone.
The narrative should be that yet again, Republicans are defying the explicit will of the public in order to represent the interests of those that would profit from austerity and privatization.
3
Continuing resolution will rule the day. Congress need to manage couple of years with continuing resolution.
It will be interesting to see the reaction of his "base" when they realize "I have seen the enemy and he is us"
1
@Lorraine H. I don't think his base comprehend anything beyond skin color.
A paranoid, mean-spirited budget.
Proposing to cut $10 billion from Social Security disability--always attractive to the GOP--shows Mr. Trump and his party just don't get the idea that worker disability is unpredictable, and that SSDI is an insurance program into which employees pay.
(Nor that the real budgetary cost of disability is not the monthly SSDI payments but Medicare expenses.)
And the military budget...reeks of the philosophy that would consume our wealth trying to protect it from the rest of the world. Friendliness, cooperation, and soft power tends to be more cost-effective.
1
I’ve got the fix.
Let’s have runaway inflation at one million % annually.
Then we can pay off our deficit with worthless currency.
2
The Medicare changes would save $846 billion over a decade, in part through curbing “waste, fraud and abuse.”
Waste, fraud, and abuse-Trump's calling cards?
2
I'm sure besides what the child president has asked for in his wall that he probably wants improvements to his weekend getaway spots for more security as well, that would jack up this budget big time.
There is one thing to be learned from this and that is the fact that Trump and family don't pay taxes, because if they did then they might care how their taxes got spent.
1
Someone please start airing ads now about how Trump wants to cut Medicare and Medicaid. That should wake some people up in swing states.
5
More cuts to "entitlements" shocker, while our already bloated military gets a nice boost.
1
Once again, this president is wasting everyone's time and effort putting forth something that will go nowhere (hopefully) . And he once again succeeded in creating a new level of incompetence by having the largest debt soaring we've ever seen, along with the longest shutdown in our history. Its obvious that the word 'budget' is not in his vocabulary; no small wonder since he bankrupted any businesses he took over from his father.
2
Nothing new here, the same old, tattered, tired and greedy GOP playbook. Don't any of you thoughtless and selfish folks(i.e., McConnell et al.) care about the insurmountable mess and burden you leave for future generations? Of course not, this is the GOP way. Thank god for the Democratic Congress.
4
"President Trump sent Congress on Monday a record $4.75 trillion budget request that calls for increased military spending and sharp cuts to domestic programs like education and environmental protection for the 2020 fiscal year."
That right there says everything you need to know about the GOP: a President who is an unadulterated ignoramus, enormous proposed budget spending after years of harping on about the deficit crisis, a massive and unnecessary increase to already-out-of-control military spending, and deep cuts to education and the environment, both of which are in dire need of additional funding.
A shameful disgrace.
Why does anyone vote for these people!?
3
Nancy and the Democrats know the economy is booming after telling us Trump would cause it to tank. Once again their foots are stuck in their mouths. They have nothing people want in their 2020 agenda unless its the so called "free" stuff which is of course not free. Another lie./ If the economy stays strong Trump wins by more than last time. Liberals have only hate in their campaigns. Won't get it done
@MelGlass - Good lord... where to start? How about with the fact that proposing a budget that involves borrowing billions, and then spending even more than you borrow, is the epitome of so-called "free stuff."
1
@MelGlass - Everyone should pay for the things we all use and benefit from.
1
@MelGlassY
You don't think people want a president who's honest; non-delusional (the imaginary tax cut late last year!); gets along with the other countries in the world; avoids taking policy advice from cronies in a tiki hut; doesn't take time during an "emergency" for political rallies or extensive grooming routines; and shows interest in policy?
How about someone who reads multi-page documents that he or she signs?
Believes he or she is supposed to serve the U.S. population instead of the other way around?
Competence shouldn't be an ideological opinion. Neither should making sense.
1
Trump is every madman's choice.
Cut taxes for the rich. Using deficits as an excuse. Cut social network programs. Add in a touch of sexism, racism, anti-Islam (now that antisemitism is a no-no), Old Gory and a touch of ole time religion and those without thought will vote, scream and demand that they be allowed to cut their own throats. This can also be accomplished by steering young misguided patriots who since time memorial have joined armies to fight enemies they do not know and have only been convinced to fear because they do not know and have not experienced the lives of others.
Reagan the great actor (well not really so great) was able in the 1980's to do what Trump is doing but now will try to do better. During that 40 year period America since the 'Gripper' (a term for groper) has been treated to elect the best of the worst candidates running. The treat often fed by billionaires who have a simple plan. Reduce their taxes and then claim deficits are bad, really bad and then cut social programs to further reduce their taxes.
This reel rewinds automatically. There! It is ready. Just go to the top of this post and reread. Then when finished, wait a moment or two and then reread again. It will not change and that is the message: the 1% do not yield but will send your kids to war.
And now back to the (select one):
( ) False News or ( ) the rest of the media.
2
These Republican budgets are a massive wealth transfer from the working class to the 1%. They cut taxes for the very riches and services for the rest of us. They reward greed and pay for it with human suffering. For those like me who saw their tax refunds shredded by the Republican tax changes, this budget is another step too far. I am tired of paying for guns and billionaires instead of education and healthcare. It is time for this country to rise up and tell Trump that we have had enough.
284
@Ben P; Although I too do not support our current tax and spend priorities, your comment on refunds as proof of ill-guided policy is deceiving.
Your refund is indicative only of your withholding, not your actual tax obligation.
The overwhelming majority of tax payers (yourself probably included) saw their tax obligation as a percent of taxable income go down. I know I did. I made sure to turn to my 2 year old son to thank him for this lovely gift since he and his generation will be paying for it.
6
@Eba Kay Actually, as I could no longer gain the benefit of property tax deduction, my overall tax burden increased.
43
@Eba Kay...I live in one of the SALT states, and although I didn't change my withholding, year over year, or my income, where I once received a federal refund, will now be writing a check to the IRS. Why? Deductions for state income and property taxes are capped. As a W-2 wage earner, I also lost many business expense deductions....I don't have a "C" corporation like most "beneficiaries" of the "Tax Cut and Jobs Act." I remedied it by reducing my spending to only what is absolutely necessary....and retiring.
39
The Democrats are responsible for the trillion dollar debt???? How clueless does he think we are. Does he think we don’t remember that huge tax cut that the Republicans voted in that is currently causing the ballooning deficit? Enough with the lies!
51
Trump is a threat to the average American. This budget proves it.
He is wholly unAmerican.
31
If you never in your blind adoration realized that Trump probably holds the world record for being a bankrupt, well now you know. I believe his Mission Statement is to bankrupt everything he gets his hand on which is now the country. Putin is lovin’ it!
24
And as a matter of fact, the collapse of the Soviet Union was directly caused by massive over-spending on military items. It was a financial collapse first and foremost and had nothing to do with Ronald Reagan except that their spending reached the brink first.
5
@walt
Trump isn’t exactly proposing Stars Wars with the USSR. He loves Putin , Xi, and Kim. Love letters! His focus is the invasion on the Southern Border by Mexican rapist, drug dealers, human traffickers. We suddenly need $475 trillion to do that? Or maybe he wants to invade Germany to teach Angela a lession about Muslim immigrants.
1
if the American people re-elect this disgusting man as President with his clear prioritization of serving only the rich and the war machine, then we as a country deserve to live that vision and the resulting increase in disfunction, violence, hate crimes, despair, pollution and overall in every way.
21
@Barry Schiller
He serves putin and the kleptocracy. putin has promised him - and his vile family- a place at the kleptocrat's table.
Only thing that can save democracy is for Americans to get out on the streets and take it back.
2
Please, let's face it...this man is a complete misanthrope who couldn't care less about the American people, including, oddly enough, his base. Beyond that, he speaks, acts and behaves as a really naughty stupid 5 year old. The French always say, and I agree with, that the age of reason begins at 6. This dude never made it past first grade. Sorry, Donnie, but you are not a stable genius, you need a very big "time out"
11
Death and destruction Trumps the well being of the citizenry. Sociopathy on steroids.
13
More bombs, less education. Yeah, sounds about right for the Republicans.
38
America's military-industrial complex needs to be cut down to size.
An American military that annually spends as much as the next eight nations combined including 10x Russia and 3x China that can't defeat a ragged illiterate bunch of mountain warriors in Afghanistan and a bunch of jihadists in the desert sands of Iraq and Syria is pretty worthless.
Failure to deter, detect and defeat the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01 followed by failure to deter, detect and defeat Israeli and Russian hacking and meddling in the 2016 Presidential campaign and election is beyond the pale. No one was held accountable by firing and no one had the honor to resign for either national security intelligence defense debacles.
America's top two parasitic scavenging " allies" Israel and Saudi Arabia want American blood and treasure wasted in a war with Iran. Better a bunch of dead and wounded Israelis and Saudis with their own arms and money on the line than a single American bullet or dollar or drop of blood.
While the migrant caravan border wall farce continues unabated.
Yet there is no threat to American security graver and greater than Benjamin Netanyahu's, Vladimir Putin's and Mohammed bin Salman's use of their mutual dummy pawn pet puppet clown jester aka Donald Trump in order to make them and their nations great again at the expense of American interests and values.
Trump is out to make more money than he inherited from his Daddy.
23
Wake up average American. Your Medicare and potential Medicaid benefits to be slashed to pay for a wall and more money for defense than even the Pentagon wants or needs. Even if Congress stops him, we must let all politicians know that we reject such cold, stupid proposals.
24
Let's see. Cuts to medicare, medicaid, social security, education, but the Biggest War Budget on the Planet is increased even more.
You know, the MSM has cried so much wolf about the idiocy of the Russiagate Conspiracy Theory, they miss what's Really happening, that will Really hurt Real Americans. You guys need to get back to nonpartisan reporting on Real issues because you've destroyed your credibility - unfortunately.
2
@Jim Mooney In whose eyes? On one hand you sound against Trump, on the other you blame the press. Sorry are you confused?
3
@Jim Mooney
I really don't know what you're talking about. The NYT assails me every day with stories about climate change, the pathetic state of our medical industrial complex--whether it be the outrageous cost of vital medications or the obscene wealth accumulated by pharmaceutical companies pushing opioids on us, the true state of income inequality due to inadequate distribution of GDP to all our wealth brackets which economists are finally focusing on, foreign policy disasters in the Middle East and Asia, you name it. Russia? Mostly, we're waiting for Mueller. We all know we're most likely stuck with this bozo for another two years.
Cuts to entitlements come up when it's budget time. As soon as Trump comes up with some cockamamie budget, there's the NYT telling us what it means, as they should do--and are, with this very column you're commenting on.
Maybe you should just get off the 'Politics' section of the newspaper once in a while.
3
Well, Trump, "the king of debt," is running the country like some of his businesses, into the ground. He is playing with house money, so he doesn't care.
14
I wonder how many of the 'faithful' in Alabama who recently had their Bibles autographed by the Author Himself have read Jesus' Sermon on the Mount where He speaks about feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger, and so forth.
Interestingly, in the last part of the discourse, Jesus warns against false prophets.
It would seem that our new Savior must've missed those passages during his daily perusal of the Good Book.
There are no words to describe the cruelty of (y)our president.
NOT my president
30
@Ninbus: Our new Savior is reading the Bible while the ads are running on Fox, right? Surely, he can't read for more than a minute, or perhaps 280 characters, at one sitting.
OK, I get it. Make America too big to fail, then cut out before everything hits the fan; Trump's tried and true formula.
9
This should come as no surprise to anyone who didn't have political blinders on.
Once the Republicans passed Trump's tax cut to the billionaires and millionaires it was obvious where they would go to recoup the losses: Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Hey Trump voters! Are you surprised? He never really cared about you. And now he's going after your safety net, programs that you paid into all of your life.
But at least you should be happy that his net worth has skyrocketed since becoming president.
11
@Len
Not sure your last sentence is true now but--unless he declares himself dictator and therefore tax-exempt in past, present and future--once the IRS gets done with him he may not have anything left.
If his parents' estates were undervalued--and it certainly looks as if they were--that's an automatic penaltyy of 25 percent of the true estate value, plus interest (20 yrs now). Then the taxes, interest and penalties on the estates.
The nullification of the Trump Foundation--if it had been used in any way for state and federal tax advantages--will have caused major recalculations, as well.
That $4 billion jump in worth due to self-described "increased brand value" is probably subject to capital gains (don't know how the IRS feels about fake assets).
Much, if not all, would have stayed...vaguer and more elusive to the valiant folks at the IRS if he hadn't become president.
Oh, my! Like a brisk plunge in a snowbank, an expectable and “transparent” position, echoing the same values of those who have always sought to fight the little guys – against child labor laws, social security, minimum wage, medicare, voting rights, environmental protections, etc., particularly after their own exhaustion of income resources through tax cuts. “Once we have what we want, there’s no money to get what others want.” The same old same old. Sandwich boards for the GOP.
Perhaps “echo” is too mild. The bloated thing is too large on face value, let alone on top of the exploding deficit. But as long as Uncle Donnie can seem to deliver the bacon, who cares how? At least he ain’t one of them gol-danged Socialists. But pigs don’t fly, and neither will this.
1
Will voters ask that Congress get rid of "waste, fraud, and abuse" in the administration -- instead of trying to take away healthcare and Social Security from working Americans?
6
A 5% increase for the military. That is insane. Cut EPA - that is insane. How can the GOP stand behind this insane person. It is mind boggling.
16
They don’t think for themselves. They are simply middle men for wealthy interests and thus none of the conflict of ideas you see on the democratic side. They just do what they are told and harass anyone that is a threat to their power.
2
The treasury just ordered 6000 55 gallon drums of the ink used to print our currency.
That about 45 tractor trailers full of ink.
The printing presses work 24/7 365 days/year.
2
I do support Trump on many issues and am 'fighting' against the unprecedented vileness of the media against him, but I find this budget proposal totally disgusting in giving clear preference to weapons vs. humans (one can note that that is nothing new in USA though).
Also, while I do support him in regard to some sort of barrier on the border, this new, even more bloated wall-money proposal is simply idiotic, all things considered.
Who is telling him to do such things?
2
So many promises NOT KEPT!
2
I propose Trump go to prison without passing Go nor collecting $200. Enough.
9
Its really pretty astounding, that one of the worlds most corrupt, criminal, idiotic, and vile people is sitting in the most powerful political position in the history of the world. He can, today, wreak more havoc on our only home in the universe, than any single person ever, and we have nearly no protections against this. nothing i am writing is in any way an exaggeration of the threat he poses to life on earth. nothing. via his enablers, he is now capable of reducing human civilization and the environment to an empty shell of what it is now, as long as he believes he is safe from the consequences. dwell on this when you vote, my fellow americans. we did this. we elected the incarnation of Kali for our age.
8
@Michael R
Yes, and you didn't mention the most terrifying aspect: he has first launch power over nuclear weapons. Any assumption that "oh, someone would stop him" depends on the possibility of some unknown, ad hoc, extra-constitutional action.
1
Cutting education isn't a great idea. Most jobs these day require a college degree......a college degree is the new GED.
3
Subsidize billionaires on the backs of the poor and elderly.
If that just doesn't scream "R."
"Pro life" easily is the biggest, most vulgar and despicable lie on the planet. Bar NONE.
20
"And it contains what White House officials called a total of $1.9 trillion in cost savings from mandatory safety net programs, like Medicaid and Medicare."
Trump has touched the third rail of politics: a cut of social safety net programs will not be popular with his base, many of whom depend on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Unfortunately, if they refuse to come out of the Fox News bubble they'll never hear about these proposed cuts.
15
Trump and also the republicans in the house and senate cut the revenue coming in via the recent tax cuts. Now Trump wants to increase military spending even more and also reduce medicare and medicaid...
And the US citizens suffer...
3
Each year the President proposes a budget that has next to nothing in common with the actual budget. Before they told that to Trump, he wanted everything to be spent on the wall.
1
It never fails to amaze me how people can say in one breath "let's reduce waste from XYZ domestic program" and in the next "let's give more money to the Pentagon."
It's as though the DOD's spending habits are secret.
6
Ah, just as that visionary Paul Ryan had wanted. Load up the debt via tax cuts and then cut benefits. We saw this coming didn't we?
17
America just keeps printing money.
America is the default currency globally.
The world trusts the dollar much more than any other currency.
Our incredible military backs up our currency.
Without our military might, the confidence in our currency would erode.
More aircraft carriers please.
4
Pray you don’t get sick, and can’t afford the bills. Or drive over a bridge that collapses underneath you. Or get caught up in a toxic water scandal. Or be downstream of a collapsed dam. Or have you kids pass out or get sick from a temporary classroom with no air conditioning or mold.
All that money we shower on the military that disappears into a black hole or gets wasted on wars of choice abroad? That money even they say they don’t need or want? It could have gone to something you could have benefited from.
6
Repeal the Trump tax cuts. Lower tax rates on the poor and middle-class. Raise tax rates on the wealthy (70% on income over ten million). Eliminate tax loopholes. Crack down on offshore tax havens. Streamline the military, and cut the bloated defense budget. There’s a start.
19
@John Sounds like a great start!!! I will vote for you!
3
It's the "Art of the Deal." Ask $3 trillion for the wall. Then lower the price to $70 billion; then the wall will seem like a bargain!
4
There's nothing quite like the feeling of POWER you get from spending other people's money on things they don't want.
5
It is very clear that this is a corrupt budget for a corrupt government, and these days I waste as few words as possible commenting on a government headed by an individual with mental health issues. I trust that journalists will generate regular chronological coverage that embeds an understanding of widespread deviations from the norm. By the way, everyone should be talking more about Bill Clinton's economy - maybe learn something truly useful.
4
We are slowly turning into the Klingon Empire: all moneys to the military, cut education (we need people without brains) and cut healthcare (natural selection unless you are wealthy). Trump's mastery of English had already led to think that he actually speaks Klingon (or some variation thereof), but this budget is the final nail in the coffin...
5
Why is Trump trying to BUY the military? Is he attempting a coup to maintain his power and the presidency? Something sinister is happening here.
9
@R4L - Almost all of this money will wind up in the pockets of defense contractors, and would not sway the loyalty of soldiers and generals one bit.
1
Mr. Vought, the acting director of the OMB says we are wasting $68 million dollars of helping workers in South America organize. Some people will say, "Why are we wasting that money to help workers in other countries?" Well, those workers currently have little or no power to bargain with their employers for working conditions, pay and benefits. Part of the reason jobs are going to developing countries is because they can pay dirt cheap wages. Therefore they can produce products at lower costs than in the U.S. Unionization of these workers is good for everybody except for the bottom line of the employers in these nations.
Meanwhile back in this country, union membership is falling as good paying union jobs with benefits disappear overseas, into open shops and the new temporary/gig economy. Add to that the efforts in several states to strip away collective bargaining rights as we move back to the days when the bosses held all the cards.
2
Republicans are never interested in workers organizing.
2
Trump is getting restless because he hasn't bankrupted anything in a while.
26
Is our government completely useless at this point? I would love to point my finger solely at DJT, but that would be the easy thing to do. There are no parties for the people at this point. The Democrats are in socialist fantasy world somewhere and Republicans are stuck in their military complex. Not one drop of accountability can been seen for miles and budgets that make no sense!
1
Socialism literally means ‘for the people’ . Capitalism means ‘for the owners of capital (wealth)’. It’s not that complicated - all public works and development are socialism by definition but the Republicans have done such a good job making socialism into a four-letter word and claiming socialism and communism are the same thing that they leave the masses twisting themselves into pretzels trying to imagine they can get the social benefits of a well developed society without the social systems required to fund and support it.
3
No. Democrats are not in a socialist fantasy world. The goals are things we need to be competitive more than next quarters profits. Investment in infrastructure and people is how you rebuild an empire after the aristocracy spends 50 years looting the place.
2
@Tim - Why is the idea of a healthy, well educated populace capable of supporting themselves considered a fantasy?
As to proposed cuts in education, note that more than sixteen million children in the United States – twenty-two percent of all children – live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level (link below). This while billionaires enjoy tax cuts.
http://www.nccp.org/topics/childpoverty.html
5
Trump just as well say what he really wants; an America for eh higher class. Paid for by the lower class.
4
President Trump's budget shows who is suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome the most. Trump himself.
4
The Fox News op-ed gets me. Do they even understand the difference between $4.75 trillion and $68 million? Trump's explosive $4,750,000 million fantasy will offset 'wasteful' programs that cost $68 million. To Faux News that makes perfect sense!
3
Trump bankrupted many of his businesses.
Will he do the same with his new for-profit company, namely the USA Inc.?
2
A blue print for declaration of campaign priorities....Please vote for me so I can give even more money to the Pentagon, which they're not even asking for, yet hammer your safety net so you can die in a ditch. Sounds like a winning strategy for sure. LOL
6
Fiscally irresponsible explosion of the budget deficit - scandalous enrichment of the military industrial complex - bald exacerbation of racism - and unconscionable pain and degradation of the poorest among us.
That's a Trump - GOP budget, for sure.
25
Xrump's gaze encompasses all of history except the past 200 years & the next 200 years
4
like Obama admin always said- a budget is not about the numbers, it shows people what you value.
56
Do you think Putin instructed Trump to bankrupt this country, both financially and morally? Either way, I still wonder why Republicans hate this country so much.
27
Still not as high as in 2012, the record year for deficits. https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/spending_chart_1960_2021USb_XXs2li111mcn_G0f
3
@Bo: And much higher than in 2015. The deficit went sharply down after 2012, which cannot be expected from Trump budgets, due to his tax heist for the rich.
4
@Bo We got it Boris. We were just coming out of a deep recession in 2012. Today we have an economic miracle. No need for deficit spending or tax cuts.
5
remember why it was that high. the great Recession on top of deficits increasing un der Bush. look at the balanced budget Trump was given
4
Wow. So the GOP has officially become the party of HUGE deficit spending. Times have changed. The only exception is that the bloated Pentagon budget gets the extra $$ vs. the sick and elderly.
7
Typical Republican move. Blah, blah blah about the government spending before the election, then whip out the credit card for a spend-fest. How about taking care of Americans, and not just those who donate to your campaign.
18
I hope the Country realizes that Trump is a lousy businessman now. He has bankrupted himself and his businesses several times and now he wants to do it to the American tax payer. He seems to think that he can spend whatever he wants because of the Federal Reserve --> Tax Payer money.
12
No surprises here. I typically don't give any weight to most anything Donald Trump says.
And particularly NONE with this crackpot budget proposal.
5
One has to wonder if Trump is bent of fulfilling Steve Bannon's dream of tearing-down America (first), and then rebuilding it based on some mysterious other model of what America "should" be.
Seriously, this has been destructive behavior since day-1 by Trump, and I suspect he would feel great satisfaction is tearing it all down...with the help of a unified group of dimwits that make up the representatives of the GOP.
9
A dictator is nothing without a ferocious military at his/her disposal.
20
Cuts to education, housing, medical, and food assistance. Cuts to education.
All are matters that directly affect his base.
Will they still vote for him? Yes.
We live in an Age of Unreason
12
I propose that Trump ride off into the sunset and enjoy the fruits of his talents and abilities. While he still can.
Seriously.
7
The military’s Defense Logistics Agency can’t account for $800 million in construction projects. They make bulk purchases of $40billion per year. This is only one small piece of the military. The entire Pentagon has NEVER passed an audit. They’ve been asked for 20 years to complete an audit.
THEY CAN’T DO IT.
Why are we giving them more and more funding when they can’t tell us what they spend it on?
3
So let me get this straight. US spends more of our tax dollars on the military than the next seven countries combined, and Trump wants to INCREASE it?
And he want to decrease our education and the protection of our environment?
Aren't our children's education important to compete against the rest of the world?
Isn't our quality of air we breathe, water we drink, and the clean land to live on is the bare necessity for our livelihood?
Aren't we the world superpower with weapons already? Isn't it time to relocate the budget for the Americans who live in this country and the protection of the environment we live in?
28
@Goahead
He's spending too much time with his BFF Kim Jong Un and dreams of modeling us in the image of N Korea: country that spends a bloated portion of its budget on its military while its people starve and its elites prosper.
3
We should all feel extremely relieved that Democrats control the house right now, even those who don’t realize how lucky they are.
15
The report correctly depicts the budget from the president, any president, is a forecast of election priorities. The article mocks our president by naming him as mister, not president. Regardless of parties or personal opinions, he is our president and bending to his penchant for name calling is not exceptional reporting. Any US school age child is taught that the actual budget and constitutional financial responsibility belongs to congress. The "Times" had a teaching moment and wrote a preaching moment. Sad!
@David: It is common practice for the NYT to refer to the president as “president” the first time, and “Mr.” subsequently. It has nothing to do with mocking or name calling. “Mr.”, or mister, is also not disrespectful or mocking in and of itself.
3
@David - If you actually read the news you would be familiar with the journalistic standards for reporting on the president.
1
Still not as high as it was in 2012, the record year for deficits.....
1
@Bo - Exactly. 2012. In other words, Obama then spent the next 4 years reducing the deficit caused by the previous Republican President. Thank you for reminding us.
1
Politicians and the media are blowing so many “dog whistles” these days, it takes concerted effort not to be a dog.
Constant distractions and distortions obscure the more important trends and issues affecting most of us.
Every day Trump demeans the presidency with lies and bullying and pushes Constitutional boundaries that protect us from abuses of power. He uses power to enrich himself and his donors and calls on his base to ignore reality and trust him alone - creating a cult that would indeed excuse him from gratuitous murders as he once chillingly observed.
Even without the proposed draconian budget cuts, Trump’s henchmen are eviscerating government agencies that serve the public good if they don’t serve the oligarchy. Ordinary Americans are paying the price.
A network of billionaires including Fox’s Rupert Murdoch aids and abets his demagoguery for their own greed and power.
McConnell’s GOP Senate is packing the judiciary with persons willing to cut back on the separation of church and state in favor of one religion, grant autocratic powers to the executive branch, diminish the authority of elected representatives in Congress, further enable money in politics and the social corrosion of wealth and income inequality, allow for minority voter suppression, and clamp down on women’s reproductive rights.
The war machine is looking for a new war. Iran is in their sights.
The new normal is: our taxpayer funded government no longer represents most of us. 2020.
6
Having passed a 10 year duration Tax Cuts and Reform Bill then saying the budget won't be balanced for 15 years does not compute and is simply "kicking the can down the road". Trump is simply straddling the children with the costs of his stature.
1
Johnson had the "War on Poverty." Trump has the "War on the Poor."
10
Sounds like another trump nightmare that most of the country does not agree with or want. Massive spending for the military and his ridiculous wall. At the expense of quality of life for Americans such as health care, medicare, infrastructure, a balanced budget (which trump promised to fix but has only made worse by his tax cuts for the rich & corporations), education, the environment, etc. The Democrats should and will stop his wasteful, ill-advised and heartless spending. Nothing good can ever come from trump!
3
Don't worry, he will declare a National Deficit Emergency and the Senate GOP will auction California to the highest bidder. Problem solved!
3
Is this so he can skim off the top to pay for all the lawsuits against him?
2
please stop referring to the wall as a signature project. it was, and is, a memory trick. that's all.
7
Inside you will see large cuts to cancer research! This should be exposed
5
The military is deplorable for all the money they waste and cannot account for.
The Defense Department spent $2.3 million on crab and another $2.3 million on lobster tail, the report said. The department did not immediately reply to HuffPost’s question about why it spent so much on seafood.
Across the departments, spending on luxury food items was common, including nearly $300,000 on steak and almost $25,000 on candy bars.
7
@Jacquie
I spent 20 years in the Air Force including about 16 months in a unit that ran the dining halls for a major installation. I keep reading news reports about the $2.3M for crab and $2.3M for lobster tail purchases at the end of the last fiscal year. Purchases at that time of year tell me they must have been made with appropriate funds, so I wonder if those purchases were for military dining halls on land or on ships which would be a perfectly legitimate procurement, namely feeding the troops. None of the news reports I've read stated where those purchases were destined for, unfortunately.
Of course, if those purchases were for the executive dining rooms in the Pentagon or some other grand poo-bah, then wastefulness would be an appropriate concern.
2
I thought Trump promised not to cut Medicare.
How many "alternative facts" is Trump now up to.
When will he come after Social Security which he also promised not to reduce.
5
This is necessary to prop up the GDP and the tax cuts will continue to postpone the market crash (through stock buy backs). Is there hope this will postpone the recession until another Democratic President arrives and we can exacerbate the partisan bickering.
The impacts of a changing climate aren't coming fast enough.
1
We have a $22 trillion debt to which we add ~$869 billion each year. The GOP purports to the the fiscally conservative party, yet under Trump we now have the largest budget increase in history, yet not a penny is for infrastructure improvements or healthcare -- programs that would actually benefit most Americans.
4
Trump tries to deny Americans health care from the Affordable Care Act to medicare and Medicaid, tries to take food from the hungry, and wants to force the afflicted off the rolls. Then he wants to expand the military Empire that will seek adventure to justify themselves and a lot of people will die as a result of all these actions. Trump is dangerous to others.
6
This was predicted before tax cuts for the 1%, business and red states were enacted. "Oh no....never" said the GOP. Time to reverse those deficit-bloating cuts.
6
Infrastructure gets zero, sick and elderly, a little, military gets a lot. This is a document displaying Trump's philosophy of life. The building blocks of life, like truth and compassion, get nothing. Give a small glance to those less fortunate. Don't think a lot. Push everyone around and definitely always get your own way.
3
It's not clear to me whether the $1.9TN in "cuts" are actually cuts.
A "cut" means that the government will spend less next year than this year.
The government spends dollars - which are worth less next year than this year because of the Fed and the fractional reserve banking system.
And it spends dollars on people - and there are more people next year than there are this year.
So, federal spending, if it is indeed all necessary, SHOULD increase - - in line with CPI and population growth. But unless there is some new emergency - the price tag on which is apparently under $9BN - the increase should be only in line with CPI and population growth.
Usually, when the NYT or WaPo report that there is a "cut," it means an increase that is less than what someone projected in the past. It almost never refers to the federal government spending less in real per capita terms than it spent last year. This is especially true with respect to Medicare and Medicaid.
As a result, proposals to increase "entitlement" spending in real per capita terms are described as "cuts," unnecessarily scaring the sick and the old.
We will have to see whether "cut" means "cut" in English, rather than Media-bonics.
1
@Patrick If the military needs to grow with the CPI, so do entitlement programs and Medicaid.
6
@Doug Lowenthal That's what I am saying. Historically, Medicare and Medicaid spending has increased faster than combined CPI and population growth rates.
1
Untax the rich and corporation and keep spending more on Defense? The recent audit shows the Defense Dept can't account for the money it is spending now and we are going to give them more money to mismanage? If Trump can easily extract 5.8 billion for a wall from the defense budget , why are we giving them more money for defense? We have over million+ STEM jobs unfilled by Americans and the republican answer is to cut education spending. The Trump list of accomplishments :1.Explode the deficit with a dumb tax cut and 2. institute tariffs that American consumers ultimately pay for and 3. financially destabilize the ACA with hopes of imploding it. The fiscal incompetence of the Republicans has no bounds it seems.
4
No need to get worked up over this, folks...it will NEVER pass the House. Not even a sliver of a chance. In fact, I'd be shocked if even the Senate would pass it. Any Senator up for re-election in 2020 would have to answer for a "yes" vote on a budget that will explode our deficit beyond it's already exploded status. Even without this proposed budget, Trump has ballooned the national debt into the trillions. If you're a Conservative, or really a Republican anywhere on the spectrum, isn't fiscal responsibility part of your mantra? How do you look the other way when someone in YOUR party, the self-proclaimed party of fiscal responsibility, explodes the debt and is on video/audio saying he doesn't have to worry about those things because they'll become someone else's problem. Just look at his track record with his businesses. Borrow millions from the bank, soak vendors/contractors and never pay them, then declare bankruptcy taking the write-off and pocketing millions off of other peoples' backs. His approach to our Government is no different. So if you're a Republican who wants to keep your job in a now-purple or blue state, you better think long and hard about how far over the cliff you're willing to follow this guy...
4
Cut environmental protection? Increase mercury emissions? Cut education? Cut spending on health care? People vote for this? This is boilerplate Republican. We must oust Trump and his creepy cohorts in 2020 and put the country back on a sane path.
3
We have yet another outrage to deal with as this latest stunt is revealed. Nothing new here, we knew what the priorities have been since 11/9/16.
I think this is the Heritage Foundation at work. Neither Trump nor anyone who works in this administration is capable of creating a budget. The one proposed would inflict incalculable harm to millions of vulnerable Americans. There isn’t, from what I read, a thought given to what would result from removing safety net provisions from those who have qualified to receive them. These are human beings placed at further risk by their own government. How is that possible?
The House must respond by conducting more hearings into the Trump family’s corruption and self dealing using subpoenas to cooerce cooperation and testimony. If he were an honest conservative and running things this way, it would be bad enough, but to have our system threatened by such phony, malevolent and greedy incompetents makes the need for stopping them more pressing than ever.
Let’s get those tax returns.
3
clearly not a blueprint for the future. exacerbates income inequality, more defence spending when the country is at peace and withdrawing from foreign wars, no infrastructure, massive deficits.
3
Let's keep in mind that President Trump's record with his personal financial dealings is mixed at best; he is certainly not the unerring business success he claims to be. As revealed in this paper, Mr. Trump was bailed out numerous times by his father to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. Mr. Trump had six bankrupt real estate businesses, on top of his failed airline and "university." He was such a business disaster that every major lender (outside of Deutsche Bank) stopped lending to him, which is why Mr. Trump turned to financing from private individuals (like Russian oligarchs) as well as branding his own name.
If Mr. Trump has been successful at anything, it's selling the "Trump" brand. And this budget proposal is yet another sales job. It will appease his right-wing base - nothing more.
Mr. Trump's history with money is terrible, and his shady business dealings are the obvious reason he wants to keep his tax returns secret. And now this dubious businessman is entrusted with managing trillions of dollars of our and future generation's money. What could go wrong?
2
Notice the use of the word "additional" spending for the border wall. Everybody knows that he has received zero funding for the border wall so how can it be "additional?"
You see even when he loses in front of the whole world he just pretends that it didn't happen. He knows his base will believe anything he says and he just does not care about any of the rest of us.
3
"The budget would not balance for 15 years, breaking Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign promise to pay off the entire national debt within eight years." There you go again, Mr. President, breaking another campaign promise. When are we going to 'stop winning', please!
2
The F-35 Fighter program alone has a lifetime cost of $1.5 trillion, not including cost over runs.
Our security would be much better protected by investing that in education and infrastructure.
2
The lesson Americans must quickly understand and learn about this insanely budget request is that it again, represents an end to fiscal responsibility, an end to budgets, an end to responsibility for understanding BUDGET 101: a government must set priorities (after listening to what its citizens want) and spend within the revenues it receives in taxes. Trump is clearly saying budgets have no meaning. If the government can not pay its bills, no big thing, it will just have the Federal Reserve print more money, electronic journal entry, and maintain a separate accounting ledger of money needed for the Treasury Dept to pay its bills. It is called a bubble, a balloon of doom. It is okay for an individual to spend more than they earn, so the logic is GOP/Trump government can spend all it wants, far more than its revenue and it is okay. Pitiful. When will the people say no, will say no more, will say it must stop. Congress is a meaningless body of politicians being paid billions by lobbyists, so don't count on them. Pitiful, wouldn't you say?
This is not a serious attempt at governing the US, it is a publicity stunt from the "King of Debt", who is now also the "King of Deficts", both trade and fiscal. It is a scene out of a Borat movie.
3
This proposal cuts Medicaid and re-fashions it to a block grant model. This is exactly the kind of proposal that would have Trump's core voters, people of a certain age, up in arms. Yet not a word from the Democrats to exploit the Republican hypocrisy. Where, oh where, is the national Democratic party's messaging machine? Is there really a Democratic party at all any more?
3
Any Republican member of Congress is stuck right now. They were elected from a pro Trump base, and the electoral landscape has not changed since then. Any significant move to oppose Trump would be career suicide, as evidenced by McConnell’s reluctant support of Trump’s Wall.
4
Trump wants to cut social programs and increase the defense budget.
Recall the wise words of President Eisenhower.
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. . . . This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."
-Dwight D. Eisenhower
5
@david - Ike was the last real Republican president.
Unlike Mr. Bone Spurs IKE had seen war and what war was.
IKE refused Dulles' request that the US intervene militarily when the French were losing at DienBienPhu.
Unfortunately IKE continued aid to the new South Vietnam and refused to tell the China Lobby that Chiang was not the head of China.
What can we say? The King of Debt strikes again! This should surprise no one. Rob from the poor and benefit the rich. After all, the rich donate to political campaigns while the poor barely can pay the pharmacy bills and put food on the table. This is about as far away from making America great again as we've seen.
4
Folks, no matter what they promise, the Republican playbook is always the same:
Give huge tax cuts to the wealthy, increase the defense budget and then claim we can't afford social programs so they have to be cut.
Every. Single. Time. And the rubes keep buying it.
10
I am among a majority of people who do not care about Trump's campaign promises. He's already broken most of them, except for cutting taxes for the ultra-rich and destroying environmental protections.
If he wants the wall, fulfill one of the promises and get Mexico to pay for it. With a check, cash or money order, not fever dreams about how the trade "deal" pays for it.
The GOP and the budget "hawks" are "hawking" a whole new game now. The deficit doesn't matter. More promises lost.
Now all the money comes from social programs to protect the poor (MUCH OF THE BASE IS HERE) and to let corporations destroy the environment. (WHERE ALL OF US LIVE).
We can't afford this president and his hallucinations. If we want a future for the country and the planet, he has to go.
3
Wow. For a guy who avoided serving his country due to "bone spurs", the irony of this huge increase in the military/defense budget simply takes one's breath away.
5
What if you threw a Tea Party and no one came? I know! I know!
The budget deficit and the national debt will reach new plateaus that no debt as reached before, very similar to Republican hypocrisy.
1
While I don’t agree with cuts to education what is wrong about asking those who are receiving government assistance to either work 20’hours, be in training or do service in their community. Certainly those 18-55 can contribute something.
Also while I’m not sure we need all the defense spending, on the other hand building planes, fighter jets, tanks or Humvis would give young workers a path to a technical career.
1
@Letmeknow
For a start, many who receive government assistance do work, like ceratain Walmart employees, for example.
Why should young workers receive training in the defense industry when there can be opportunities created with innovation inareas that actually do some good?
We really need to change the way we think about these things. I welcome the input of the young, they have a real stake in the future.
3
You are proposing socialism- govt run employment programs
1
Contracted out! Globalized.
Trump will not get away with blaming the Democrats for a growing national debt and a bloated budget that takes money away from domestic programs while increasing military spending and building an unnecessary wall. Republicans must stand up to Trump if they have any hope of saving their party which used to be based on fiscal responsibility and a smaller government.
Trump has no idea what he's doing and it's time for the Republicans to stop enabling Trump and start caring about the country.
49
This will guaranteed break the economy.
Probably is Trump's exist strategy - burn the nation down on the way out.
65
@Tim Miltz More like the plan from the beginning!
TREASON
3
Well now we can add "fiscally conservative" to the list of aptitudes this President grossly lacks.
31
Cut social programs; increase military ;increase the deficit and Billions for a needless wall. "Dead on arrival". Ray Sipe
21
You can not buy a big enough military to make a coward feel safe.
343
@Leopold You're so right. Trump's budget is no surprise, given his own cowardice.
2
I have to laugh; Another fiscal disaster from the Borrow and Spend Republicans....
35
He is severely mentally ill. How corrupt, greedy and treasonous must the GOP be to allow such insanity to continue?
96
@Curiouser
Just read the NYT obituary on Carmine Persico. He had nothing on Donald Trump, our Mobster in Chief.
3
This so-called budget is more an exercise in sociopathy than finance. The abject stupidity of a border wall strains the imagination and challenges vocabulary to adequately characterize it.
28
Aside from being dead on arrival, the budget is the same exact platform Trump ran in 2016: Military spending, border wall, attack popular social programs, punish non-supporters. I guess we should explode the deficit and lie about it all. However, we don't need Sherlock to see Trump wants a repeat performance. He's a one trick pony and Democrats should take him to task on it.
Let's just hope they aren't foolish enough to run a neoliberal again. What was that about?
10
@Andy Did Trump ever promise to cut Medicare and Medicaid? I thought he promised beautiful affordable heath care for all and bringing jobs back to the US, neither of which he has delivered.
2
@Andy
Yes, let's run an 80 year old Socialist.
2
How long after he gets kicked out of office will it take the SDNY to pursue RICO charges on him and his brood?
19
More military, less domestic, huh?
If America continues to fall apart internally due to lack of funding for "domestic programs like education and environmental protection," why bother defending it? Let's just turn it over to Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, N. Korea and the Philippines - if we haven't already.
Absolute morons in charge.
36
Cut education and environmental protection? In other words, cut the future.
Imbecile is being too kind.
97
Cutting combined $1 trillion from Medicare & Medicaid affects every American or an elderly or disabled relative. 14 yrs ago I spent the first of 19 days comatose due to ruptured brain aneurysm. I am your permanently disabled fellow American. I object to these cuts on behalf of all affected.
894
@Maureen I am your taxpaying American, and I support these cuts on behalf of those actually footing the bill.
5
@Maureen I am reading Medicaid will be cut. NOT Medicare..."cuts to mandatory safety net programs, like Medicaid". There is a big difference...
2
@Maureen
I am your fellow American tax payer. Let's keep those programs affordable.
42
The military budget is already full of waste. We need more spending on infrastructure. Decreasing spending for education will make the US less competitive in the long term. We need more money for STEM programs not less. What happened to his promise to balance the budget ? This budget is DOA.
543
@John
Trump actually wanted to divert FEMA disaster funds to pay for his "Wall".
11
@John I have some friends who work in the defense industry, and a few of them are LOUD supporters of Trump and suggest we need to increase military spending by 3x (!) so they can get paid more...at taxpayer expense. THIS IS CRAZY. These people are insanely GREEDY. Let's spend money to make life better for us and future generations. The Green New Deal (which doesn't cost even CLOSE to $93 trillion) needs funding to preserve life for future generations, we have no choice.
23
@John
Trump's emergency funding this year is coming largely from the military budget. By asking for more military spending in 2020 (more than requested by DOD), he is just creating a bigger pool from which he can drain off more Wall funding. as if the $8B wall funding isn't enough.
5
Exactly what we need: additional funding for an-already bloated military; less money for education and the environment.
This foolish president wants money to continue to fight unnecessary wars; he wants to give his SecEd, Betsy DeVos, an even greater hand at privatization; and he wants to sell off land belonging to “We, the People” to his oligarchy cronies who want to despoil what remains of the nation’s natural (and seriously diminished and diminishing) riches.
Of course, this “budget” proposal has no shot in the House. Not a line of money for infrastructure, though. This president simply cannot hear trees falling in distant parts of the forest because he’s focused on ballooning a deficit that will bind us all (or most of us, anyway—the rich never pay for anything) eventually, to higher and unaffordable taxes into the foreseeable future.
How are those wars, going, Mr. “President?” Are your campaign donors glutted yet? And, sir, we need more education in America, not less. And a better quality of education than the one your father paid for you.
722
@Red Sox, ‘04, ‘07, ‘13, ‘18
You don't understand - cutting education will guarantee more Republicans
195
@Red Sox, ‘04, ‘07, ‘13, ‘18
Couldn’t agree more; Chinese will be graduating many more engineers than US; education gap is likely to be our Achilles heel in the not too distant future.
65
@BlackJackJacques Trump himself says "I love the uneducated." So there is his justification for cuts to education.
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Under our Constitution, all spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives. They can and will shelve Trump's budget. Trump knows this and, therefore, submitted a fantasy budget. I can't remember when Congress approved a budget proposed by the President. It's all about political theater.
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@David
It's all political comedy not theater.
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If this is comedy then I don’t want to see a tragedy.
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@David
I hear that that part of the increase to the military budget is to built a hotel in Moscow so that Trump can personally spy on those Russians, especially Putin in the $50 million free penthouse.
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This is a reality-show budget meant to please the Fox News audience of a reality-show President. Mr. Trump has doubtless been told that little of this will pass Congress, but that doesn't matter. Like everything about Mr. Trump, the proposal is about appearances and branding, not good governance.
If you support President Trump, imagine that this budget passed as is, with no changes whatsoever - bloated military budgets, massive cuts to other agencies, and trillion-dollar deficits and rising. Is this your idea of making America great again?
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@jrinsc other than the increase in Military spending, I wholeheartedly support this budget. I'd even encourage further cuts to entitlement programs. It's about time someone stood up for those in this country who actually work and produce wealth for the nation rather than leeching off it.
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@SA If you investigate, you may find that the real leeches are the corporations that decide they want to be individual entities without paying the taxes individual entities pay. It is not the average worker or the people beholden to the corporations that have now been laid off. 1% wealth is leeching all of us and America voted in their boy.
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@SA "Those leeching off it". Surely you're referring to the ultra wealthy leeches who are able to get around paying taxes. Not sure how cutting Medicaid spending is going to stand up against those leeches. No, that'll hurt the disabled person who can only work minimum wage and can't afford their $600/month medications. Are you suggesting the people who are simply incapable of working a higher skilled job, which would pay more, should just die because they don't "produce enough wealth" to deserve medication? Sure, there may be a small amount of people who are able to work but just choose not to, but why should we be punishing those who do need the help....
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We will need a wall to keep people IN this country with this madman in 'charge'.
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Canada's looking better and better...
And with continuing global warming...
in a few decades it'll be almost like living in NYC.
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Add in all the free stuff Democrats want and that figure would double.
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@M - "Free Stuff" = Anything that doesn't go straight into Republican pockets...
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@M nah the idea is using tax money for purposes that benefit the public, INSTEAD OF using billions on a wall to protect us from all those scary immigrants coming over (on planes) to steal our precious, coveted manual labor jobs. Not in addition to. Also please don't give democrats too much credit. by "free stuff dems want" you mean "tax paid programs which benefit all citizens that most of the developed world want (and have)"
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Please list the"free stuff" to which you are referring.
3
This comes from one of the few man in history to bankrupt a casino--
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@deb
Not correct. He bankrupted TWO casinos.
Moe Greene would have slapped him around like nobody's business.
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@Hugh CC
Not correct. He bankrupted FOUR casinos. The Taj Mahal, Trump Castle Hotel And Casino, Trump Plaza Casino, and Trump Marina Casino.
Meyer Lansky would’ve had him shot in the middle of Fith Avenue.
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Party of small government, eh?
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mitch?
Your thoughts?
mitch?.....,.
Anyone seen mitch?..??....
Oh there he is escaping out a back door!
Hey mitch!?
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"The budget forecasts trillion-dollar deficits for four straight years, starting in 2019".....while helping to gild the rich and massacre the poor, the hungry, the sick, and the undesirables.
The King of Moral, Intellectual and Economic Bankruptcy has made his character know in capital gold letters, America, although the gold color seems to be a close cousin of bladder fluid amber.
America's Disgrace-In-Chief starts yet another deplorable day.
Remember in 2020.
D for decency; R for a continuing Republican-sponsored massacre of all human decency.
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This is a budget from the same DJT that raved on the campaign trail about how he loves debt.
Serious and reputable executives raise value and run operations through efficiency and do it all within (often below) budget.
Not DJT.
His strategy is to not pay vendors for completed work and take every loophole, legal and otherwise, to not pay taxes. It’s smart (his words)!
This is time that every American can be happy that the Dems control the government purse.
There are few things worse than a delusional executive with a check book!
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Voters fell for his promise to eliminate the deficit in 2016. The Republican tax cuts enacted a year later could only produce a larger deficit. But millions of Americans will still vote for this snake oil salesman because they either all want to be rich or hate Democrats or both.
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Looks like Mr. Trump is out to bankrupt America the same way he bankrupted all his other businesses. Why should we be surprised?
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Yet again from a republican white house, a budget that promises "Democrats will have to clean this mess up one day."
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Dear Grandma and Grandpa: do you need a wall or healthcare because the $845 BILLION dollar cut to Medicare (healthcare for the elderly) proposed by Trump is going to make your life tough.
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This budget reflects the sensibilities of an ignorant and unfit man. A man who banks refused to lend to because of his numerous bankruptcies.
Trump's only goals are to divide us and enrich himself. What kind of president would do that? (Answer: One who, besides being Russian asset, has no morals.)
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He's not the least bit interested in it passing. He's only interested in having an issue to pin on the Democrats ... either for failing, if he's feeling particularly cowardly on the day he needs an issue, or in another shutdown if he's feeling particularly vicious when he needs it.
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Trump is utilizing an old trick to get what you want. Ask for significantly more than you need and "negotiate" down to what you wanted in the first place.
@Annie: Yes, except we're not haggling over carpet, here. His Negotiation 101 tactic is as one-dimensional and simplistic as he is.
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@Annie He showed how good a negotiator he is with the shutdown/wall debacle and the NK debacle.
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I can't wait to hear the Republicans blast this proposed budget for being so fiscally irresponsible!
3
Fiscal conservatism died to the roaring applause of "fiscal Conservatives."
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As I understand it, the five principal objectives of this budet are: 1) to inflict pain on the needy; 2) futher erode the educational system; 3) allow increased destruction of the environment; and 4) increase the military capacity of the US.
This won't MAGA, it will make America meaner, dumber and dirtier, but with nice biceps.
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@Michael James Great summary! About those biceps, though -- Unless someone conducts a forensic analysis of every DOD contract and gets rid of the waste there, more money for the military would probably just amount to additional fat.
2
Trump and the Republican motto seems to be:
Make somebody else pay.
Republicans bankrupt the economy, and this time Democrats will not be able to fix it because they've gone too far.
Shameless and shameful. This is no longer a democracy, but a dictatorship which privatizes profit and socializes risk.
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What a fantasy! Obviously, like everything else Trump does, it's a budget that only plays to his base.
2
Any budget increase comes as no surprise as the government needs to grow proportionally along with population growth.
But, the Congress is a far better judge of the will of the people as they are a Congress "Of The People" with greater deliberations and compromise needed to determine the best coarse to take, much like a supercomputer network is smarter than a single computer.
The Wall? I do believe that issue was settled weeks ago. The whole of the Congress is smarter than any one man including myself and all final decisions should rest with the Congress, as it does. Any wall justified on the basis of immigrants coming here for freedom is silly. Building a wall would make our southern neighbors our enemies. Trump just likes to fight anyone, including his own people, all the time. Years of starting fights. I just can't get upset by the man. He's the problem, not the immigrants.
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@PATRICK Right on point Pat...trump IS the problem with most of what is WRONG with the US. Not; immigrants, legal or illegal, environmental regulations, NATO, the Iran deal, Paris accords, Trade, the Media, the FBI, etc. Trump is like a disease that keeps giving. Soon there will be a cure!
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@PATRICK "Trump just likes to fight anyone, including his own people, all the time."
Those were my thoughts this weekend. Like any abusive personality, his battle tactics are to seduce the gullible, demand the outrageous, discredit detractors. Trump is at war with the American people and the Constitution of the United States.
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@Blue Ridge
It is amazing how many fights Trump wants to start; don't those bone spurs keep him home, or at his private clubhouse? He managed to play golf when his bone spurs kept him out of Vietnam. He couldn't even claim a student deferment, because he was expelled from a middle school, and never attended university; his father bought him a degree. Now, he is riding Netanyahu's political hobby horse. Didn't Netanyahu take credit for his brother's heroics at Entebbe? What a pair of corrupt grifters.
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The proposed budget for the border wall is less then two tenths of a percent of the total budget. That's hardly worth mentioning.
2
Out of all the things we need in the United States - healthcare, education, bridges and roads - Trump and the Republican Party want to spend billions on a border wall. That does not make American great again.
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Nothing new here. He wants money for the silly wall and needs to account for the deficit caused by the massive tax cuts for the wealthy. Those are his priorities. His base still wants the wall. Whether or not they still believe Mexico is paying for the wall or they still think Trump is acting on their needs is a big mystery. Let’s hope the Democrats can fight this because the GOP wants to cut services as well.
2
Remember the good old days when Republicans were fiscally conservative and urged us to be prudent with spending and national debt? Kiss those goodbye and welcome in the era of unfettered and reckless spending that truly will be a burden to our grandchildren. Add fiscal restraint to the plus list for Democrats to take back control of both the executive and legislative branches. At least we would be spending money on things that more closely mirror our values.
3
So when the GOP says smaller government what we know them to mean is less help for our most vulnerable people -government bad-- more money for the military--good government.
Or is it only smaller government when democrats are in power? Just like ethics are only important when the democrats are unethical? Right-? This is today's topsy turvy world under the Greed Over People party.
4
Let's see .... He wants $5 billion for next year, $3 billion he did not get this year, and more to repay the military for money he stole from other projects. Then, he wants to cut domestic programs. Anyone who agrees with this is out of touch with reality. It will not pass Congress and Trump will blame everyone but himself for the consequences.
4
I hear a lot of talk about the Democrats needing a moderate candidate. Who will be the moderate Republican candidate? Are we supposed to believe it's Donald Trump? That is how the media seems to be framing the contest.
7
Socialism seems to be the new GOP buzzword to combat the Democrats.
Translation, we are getting rid of social security and medicare which are as socialistic as programs can be.
My curiousity has me wondering if they will also want to get rid of our socialistic national armed forces, as well as libraries, police forces, and firefighters.
If they're anti-socialism, they're against all of the above. If they support any of the above programs, Democrats need to remind them they too support aspects of socialism, and need to repeat that over and over and over to either have them admit they are getting rid of the programs, or, they too, accept parts of socialism.
Dems need to fight fire with fire or they will lose again nationally.
3
Fantastic irony! The “MAGA” man wants increasing pollution, decreasing education and health care, ballooning the deficit. This is the future that’s great in Trump’s America? Vote Democratic at every opportunity.
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trump is showing signs of his megalomania.
He wants to be king, a dictator.
He wants to keep us all, except the super-wealthy, under his thumb... to keep us uneducated, unable to read and comprehend (relying on fox news), unhealthy sick and dying, surrounded by toxic pollution and coal dust, surrounded by missile silos, surrounded by walls between states, surrounded by Wall Street helicopters constantly flying overhead, and leaving us in-debt: paying today for our future wars.
7
@IN The new aristocracy, complete with a sociopathic king.
12
What happened to fiscal conservatism?
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@Tom
Fiscal conservatism operates only when a Democrat is in the White House.
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@Tom - The Democrats are getting right on that ... ironic, but that's the world we live in now.
2
@Tom
It was just chin music. It has always been just chin music. Stuff the GOP says to get votes from voters who don't care to actually follow the numbers to their conclusion.
11
What a waste of time and money to submit a budget congress won’t approve. His campaign office should be billed for the cost of creating a budget that has no chance of making it through the house. The swamp drainer has become the swamp.
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@Prudence Spencer, you said:
"The swamp drainer has become the swamp"
"become"?
That's too generous.
trump has always been a swamp dweller!
why even propose this, or print it??? The administration could have reduced some carbon footprint and a few trees just by not printing this waste of time exercise especially when it is DOA!!!
31
Trump spends money like a drunken sailor and now wants to cut domestic spending in favor of military spending. This is a man that wants to destroy democracy and be a dictator. We must get out the vote to assure he is not re elected.
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