If a budget is a statement of values and priorities, President Donald Trump’s proposal for fiscal year 2020 clearly displays his commitment to enriching the wealthy at the expense of ordinary Americans.
That was how Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) characterized Trump’s $4.7 trillion budget request on Monday after the White House released details of the plan, which includes a massive increase in military spending and trillions of dollars in total cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
“The Trump budget is breathtaking in its degree of cruelty and filled with broken promises,” Sanders, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, said in a statement. “Donald Trump promised the American people that he would be a different type of Republican, that he would be a champion of the working American and that he would not cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. But his budget does the exact opposite of what he promised the American people.”
Over the next decade, Trump’s budget — officially titled “A Budget for a Better America” — would slash Medicaid by $1.5 trillion, Medicare by $845 billion, and Social Security by $25 billion, according to Sanders’ office. The president’s blueprint also requests $8.6 billion in border wall funding.
“This is a budget for the military industrial complex, for corporate CEOs, for Wall Street, and for the billionaire class,” Sanders said. “It is dead on arrival.”
This is a budget for the military-industrial complex, for corporate CEOs, for Wall Street and for the billionaire class.
We don’t need billions of dollars for a wall that no one wants. We need a budget that works for all Americans, not just Trump and his billionaire friends. https://t.co/qKf8iXpYzF
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 11, 2019
Giving the Pentagon “even more than it hoped for,” Trump’s budget calls for an $861 billion increase in military spending over the next ten years.
That sum, Sanders said, “could make public colleges and universities tuition-free over the next decade.”
Warren Gunnels, Sanders’ staff director, tweeted: “We don’t need a magic wand or a genie to make public colleges free. We need to get our priorities right.”
Over the next 10 years, Trump’s budget would cut:
– $1.5 trillion from Medicaid
– $845 billion from Medicare
– $25B from Social Security
– $207B from college education
– $220B from food stampsWhile base defense spending would increase by $861 billion https://t.co/o7IW4SQIMq
— Warren Gunnels (@GunnelsWarren) March 11, 2019
As the Washington Post’s Jeff Stein and Amy Goldstein reported, Trump’s budget proposal calls for coverting Medicaid into a block-grant system and handing states the power to set coverage rules — a move that would endanger the healthcare of millions of low-income Americans.
“Make no mistake about it: Trump’s budget is a massive transfer of wealth from working class families to the wealthiest people and most profitable corporations in America,” Sanders concluded.
Help us Prepare for Trump’s Day One
Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
As journalists, we have a responsibility to look at hard realities and communicate them to you. We hope that you, like us, can use this information to prepare for what’s to come.
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In addition to covering the widespread onslaught of draconian policy, we’re shoring up our resources for what might come next for progressive media: bad-faith lawsuits from far-right ghouls, legislation that seeks to strip us of our ability to receive tax-deductible donations, and further throttling of our reach on social media platforms owned by Trump’s sycophants.
We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
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