Trump proposes record budget, wants to cut Medicare/aid, education + more

[Morphine Prince 109,645]

WASHINGTON — President Trump sent Congress on Monday a record $4.75 trillion budget plan that calls for increased military spending and sharp cuts to domestic programs like education and environmental protection for the 2020 fiscal year.

Mr. Trump’s budget, the largest in federal history, includes a nearly 5 percent increase in military spending — which is more than the Pentagon had asked for — and an additional $8.6 billion for construction of a wall along the border with Mexico. It also contains what White House officials called a total of $1.9 trillion in cost savings from mandatory safety net programs, like Medicaid and Medicare, the federal health care programs for the elderly and the poor.

The budget is unlikely to have much effect on actual spending levels, which are controlled by Congress. Democratic leaders in both the House and the Senate pronounced the budget dead on arrival on Sunday, and Mr. Trump’s budgets largely failed to gain traction in previous years, when fellow Republicans controlled both chambers.

The budget would curb the growth of Medicare and Medicaid, two programs Mr. Trump had previously pledged to leave intact. And it proposes shaving $818 billion from projected spending on Medicare over 10 years and cutting nearly $1.5 trillion from projected spending on Medicaid.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/11/us/politics/trump-budget.html

 

[Morphine Prince 109,645]

@Economy Here we go again with increased defense spending and reducing social programs. 

[DeleteMyAccount 11,881]

The government needs to be more transparent with US citizens when their defense budget is bigger than most countries combined. What do they even need the budget for? I know the US makes a lot of money selling weapons and machinery to other countries, but that can't be why the budget is so high. Imagine cutting defense by a practical amount. We'd probably be able solve a ton of social programs/issues if done. But a country divided and worked to death is exactly what keeps those in power, in power.

[Morphine Prince 109,645]

2 minutes ago, ZacharyMark said:

The government needs to be more transparent with US citizens when their defense budget is bigger than most countries combined. What do they even need the budget for? I know the US makes a lot of money selling weapons and machinery to other countries, but that can't be why the budget is so high. Imagine cutting defense by a practical amount. We'd probably be able solve a ton of social programs/issues if done. But a country divided and worked to death is exactly what keeps those in power, in power.

The US survives on war. 

I’m sorry but it’s the truth about our country. They will do anything to keep certain areas of the world at war as long as they can make a profit off of it. 

It also makes the US highly competitive on the global scale against giants like China. 

[Emvee 8,825]

For ****s sake, this needs to STOP. 

 

We are at the point where we are called “radical leftists” and anti-American if we want to lower defense spending and invest in education, healthcare, and infrastructure - when in reality it’s republicans who are not only bloating it up for no damn reason... they are blowing up the deficit while simultaneously blaming it on democrats. As if the bulk of that deficit wasn’t created to offset the damage brought forth by “conservative” policies, such as deregulation. 

[Economy 52,837]

1 hour ago, Morphine Prince said:

@Economy Here we go again with increased defense spending and reducing social programs. 

This is rediculous. Continuing to cut spending on things that are true investments to society and economy while continuing to increase military spending that does nothing useful at those levels

 

You know that trade deficit Trump complains so much about? Insanely high military budget has a way bigger impact on it than any trade deals he might alter

 

These millions of military personnel do nothing industrially productive for the economy. They are labor the private sector cannot use. They do not produce a good or service that can be sold but they receive a salary they do consume food and other goods many of them imported

 

Maybe not ironically... The $700 Billion defense budget is more or less equivalent to the trade deficit 

[Fresco 1,688]

Trickle down, trickle down, trickle down now. Trump never came to the middle. This is what his most conservative supporters want, and he gets called out on Fox if he doesn't give them what they want. 

 

 

[Pelaon 2]

An increase of 5% for the war and a reduction in the budget for education, in my opinion, will not bring anything good. 2 weeks ago, I just online consulted on this issue with https://writingpeak.co.uk/homework-help-online for homework help in writing where I considered the state of modern American education, its further development or decline. But in any case, the development is possible only with the interest of the government in these processes.