Day 1,116: Trump’s proposed budget seeks to slash Medicaid, food stamps
White House’s past projections for federal deficit haven’t even been close.
While campaigning, Donald Trump laughably promised that he would eliminate the national debt in eight years. Instead, it continues to balloon, even in an economy that he brags every day is booming.
The White House’s own projections for the deficit have continued to get far worse over the past three years, despite repeated promises to deal with the ever-pressing problem.
Instead, White House officials plan to say their budget proposal would close the deficit by 2035. During President Trump’s first year in office, his advisers said their budget plan would eliminate the deficit by around 2028. This new budget will mark the third consecutive time that they abandon that 10-year goal and instead suggest a 15-year target.
This new trend shows how little progress the White House is making in dealing with ballooning government debt, something GOP party leaders had made a top goal during the Obama administration. Trump’s first budget projected the deficit in 2021 would be $456 billion. Instead, it is projected to be more than double that amount.
Trump missed his 2021 deficit goal by a half trillion dollars. His 2017 projections are merely three years old — it’s not like they were even that forward-looking — so it’s even more ridiculous for this White House to look 15 years forward and claim things project to be better. The amount of variables over that span is far greater than that over the past three years.
On top of all that, Trump gave a tax cut worth trillions of dollars to corporations and the wealthy that did very little for the economy. And Trump wants to repeat the gift for his buddies, which would require the U.S. to borrow even more money to offset the lost revenue.
Meanwhile, Trump’s latest budget proposal seeks to slash social safety net programs, like Medicaid and food stamps, putting the most vulnerable Americans in even more danger.
The president’s proposed budget looks to cut $4.4 trillion in government spending over a decade and targets changes to the Medicare prescription drug program that would slash $130 billion. Also, it looks to cut $292 billion from Medicaid and food stamps, and it takes another $70 billion by limiting disability benefits.
Trump would also like to cut the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget by 26 percent and the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s budget by 15 percent. Also, with the coronavirus lurking, the president wants to see a decrease in funding of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by nine percent.
Trump also wants billions more for a border wall that he repeatedly swore Mexico would pay for.
With Democrats controlling the House of Representatives, Trump’s budget has no chance of passing, but it shows, yet again, where his priorities and cruelness lie.
1,116 days in, 346 to go
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