Analysis by Kyle A. Lohmeier
It’s a little bit like “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” but without the charm or anyone getting punched in the face; at least, that’s my takeaway from Republican opposition to the budget cuts President Trump is proposing.
Now to be fair, for all of his big talk about cutting spending – alongside his promise to not touch entitlement programs – Trump was never going to save American taxpayers much money. And now, Republicans are trying to make those tax savings even smaller while teaching Trump lessons on pork.
The “biggest” part of Trump’s plans to “cut” discretionary spending is to reduce the State Department’s budgets for foreign aid and other programs by 28 percent, or $10.9 billion, to help pay for his unneeded 10 percent, or $54 billion increase in military funding.
“’These increases in defense come at the expense of national security,’ said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who has not hesitated to take on Trump. Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who like Graham ran unsuccessfully for president in 2016, leveled similar sentiments, as did some prominent Republicans in the House of Representatives,” Richard Cowan and Roberta Rampton reported for Reuters yesterday.
Trump’s laudable goal of “inflicting” (Reuters’ word) a 31 percent cut to the EPA, $2.6 billion of their budget, ran afoul of that constant feature of Washington, pork-barrel spending.
“Some veteran Republicans, including Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, a White House budget chief during the administration of President George W. Bush, vowed to preserve the EPA’s Great Lakes restoration program that Trump wants to eliminate,” Reuters reported while attempting to frame Portman’s opposition as a result of having prior federal budget experience and not because he’s from Ohio, which borders one of the Great Lakes, which means some of that money would be coming his way.
Trump is also proposing much needed but not deep-enough cuts to other domestic spending programs, and of course those too are facing opposition from loyal statists.
“Lisa Murkowski, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, attacked plans to cut or eliminate programs that help the poor pay heating bills, provide aid for localities to deal with wastewater and subsidize air travel in rural areas like her home state of Alaska.
“’We need to remember that these programs are not the primary drivers of our debt,’ Murkowski said,” Reuters reported the senator fiercely defending her slice of congressional bacon.
Trump is also proposing to cut programs for the Department of Education and the budgets that fund public broadcasting, arts and other such things the government has no business funding, but amount to a mere drop-in-the-ocean of federal deficit spending. But then, government is never big enough for liberals, and they tend to speak only in hyperbole.
“’Throwing billions at defense while ransacking America’s investments in jobs, education, clean energy and lifesaving medical research will leave our nation weakened,’ said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi,” Reuters reported.
No matter who wins this budget fight, Trump, Democrats or Republicans, the typical American won’t notice much of a difference either way. Despite offering little more than a plea to save her job, Murkowski did hit upon an actual truth: these little programs are not the primary driver of our nation’s debt.
For that, we have to look at the entitlement programs that consume 60 percent of every federal budget – things like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Only when government gets the political will and economic wisdom to fully and immediately eliminate all of those programs and replace them with nothing will Americans see any real relief from the ever-increasing degree of crippling taxation we are burdened with. And, that will never happen. So, never, ever trust any politician who says they want to cut your taxes. It’s a lie.
Leave a Reply