The announcement of President Trump’s 2019 budget has gotten a lot of critical reaction from both sides of the aisle, leaving many confused as to whether or not it truly represents the commander-in-chief’s promised America First agenda.
Following is a comprehensive overview of the spending cuts and increases the president wants as well as some of the most controversial aspects of the budget plan.
The Pentagon is one of the biggest winners in the proposed budget plan, getting just about everything that Secretary of Defense James Mattis wanted. The budget proposes spending up to $667 billion on Pentagon and overseas military spending. Almost $50 billion more would be added to this fund in order to fund additional military spending and nuclear program spending by the United States Department of Energy. Given the fact that President Trump has long advocated for an increase in military spending, this change does not come as a surprise.
A number of national agencies and programs also come out on top with the new budget. President Trump is seeking up to $18 billion to fund construction of the wall as well as additional $4 billion for expenses such as hiring and training more Border Patrol agents and ICE agents, hiring more immigration judge teams and prosecuting attorneys, boosting biometric programs and National Targeting Center programs and funding and maintaining detention facilities for detained immigrants. The budget also requests about $200 for the president’s infrastructure plan and an additional $13 in new funding to combat the opioid crisis.
Not all the agencies and programs get the funding they want or even feel that they need. The budget proposal cuts a great deal of funding from a number of agencies, programs and organizations. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting would be fully defunded under this proposed budget bill as well. The Trump Administration is also seeking to cut NASA funding for the International Space Station, with the idea of opening the door to private investment in this arena. The Department of State and USAID would get only three-quarters of the funding received last year while the Department of the Treasury’s international programs would receive a 20% funding cut.
However, it is the cuts to domestic aid programs that are generating the most controversy. The proposed budget seeks to cut SNAP spending by more than 27% by the year 2028. This massive cut, coupled with the fact that the President has recently proposed that SNAP recipients could receive some of their benefits in the form of US-made food items with a stable shelf life has generated a great deal of controversy. Other cuts to social programs include a proposed 20% cut in funding for Section 8 housing assistance and a 22.5% cut to Obamacare and Medicare subsidies along with a 7% cut in funding to Medicare itself.
Those who are worried that climate change will bring about massive environmental disasters in the near future will likely be displeased with the president’s proposal to reducing the EPA’s funding by nearly 34%. While this particular funding cut is not currently generating as much news as President Trump’s other budget proposals, it would become extremely controversial should the country be hit with a number of natural disasters as was the case in 2017.
It should be noted that there is a very good chance that many aspects of President Trump’s proposed budget plan will not make it into law. The proposed White House budget is just the first step; now that both the House of Representatives and the Senate know where the White House stands on funding matters lawmakers will get to work crafting their own bills that may or may not be in line with the President’s proposals.
While some proposals can pass as reconciliation bills in the same way the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed last year, other types of funding increases and funding cuts cannot be passed in this way and so would need the votes of at least 9 Democratic senators in order to pass.
~ Liberty Planet
