It's the simplest thing in the world. trump won the election but he could lose the presidency big time. The tell is in this morning's New York Times. It is not just Trump's words that come back to bite him. It is his deeds. The particular deed that is at issue is how he slices up a budget that may already be dead before arrival. According to an article by The Times' Peter Baker, the budget disadvantages "some of the very constituencies that have been most supportive of the new president during his improbable rise to power."
Rural may be toast
Charter schools will prosper, but rural after school programs will recede along with summer programs.
Rural and low-income persons will have to do without help on the energy front. Training opportunities will shrink and legal assistance will be harder to obtain. The cuts will not zap all these services, but they will tighten things up among those for whom making ends meet is always an uphill fight.
Where is the money going?
Building more prisons is right up there among the president's priorities. This will be paid for by such economies as savings on airports and turning down loans for water projects. The money in the mind of the man whose thoughts will be unveiled today at the White House will be spent for huge increases in Military Spending. Baker says that even with many cuts on the table, finding all the money he wants to lavish on the military will be almost impossible.
In Trump Budget, More for Military, as His Supporters May Lose out https://t.co/qRer294Xh4
— Stephen C. Rose (@stephencrose) March 16, 2017
What you may miss when it's gone
Affordable housing is on the block along with subsidies that now make air travel to small communities possible. Among more than 50 EPA programs cut are assistance to rural settlements in Alaska and Arizona.
If you live near a hazardous waste site you face a reduction in cleanup money. It is almost predictable that if the Trump budget is passed it will remove something on which members of his Base depend. But the biggest disappointment may be the biggest defect in the Trump budget.
Elephant in the room
Not one penny of the national debt will be paid.
In fact, not one penny in the deficit will be saved. The reduction of services to Trump's base will simply pay for the $54 billion bump in military spending. But it is the debt that nobody is talking about, including Trump. The bottom line is we will still spend more than we take in. It will all work out, says the president. But for who?
