President Donald Trump released a budget plan for 2018 outlining drastic cuts to health and human services while increasing military spending.
And while many agencies stand to lose millions of dollars in funding, others face total elimination.
Not only does Trump propose slashing jobs in the Labor Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the administration hopes to issue cuts in places like the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Housing, as well as eliminate up to 20 programs in the Department of Education.
Other agencies and programs that stand to be affected by the controversial budget include the following:
• Community development block grants
• The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program
• The National Endowment for the Arts
• The Corporation for Public Broadcasting
• U.S Environmental Protection Agency
The Department of Education also faces losing $1.2 billion in funding for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program which supports before and after school and summer programs. Another casualty of this proposed budget is the Meals on Wheels food delivery program.
The budget would reduce two grants the program relies on. The program feeds more than 2.4 million Americans a year and delivers about 218 million meals a year. According to Pew Research, older voters preferred Trump over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election and it appears that this cut will hit them the most.
Mick Mulvaney, the president’s budget chief, defended these cuts and even called them ‘compassionate.’
“Meals on Wheels is not a federal program. It’s part of the block grants that we give to the states. Many states make the decision to use that money on Meals on Wheels. We’ve spent $150 billion on [CDBGs] since the 1970s. We can’t spend money on programs just because they sound good. Meals on Wheels sounds great.”
The Trump budget proposal also calls for the elimination of $667 million of federal grants to cities and states for homeland security, including $190 million to New York City alone. Of course, all of these cuts are part of the plan to being gathering the funds to pay for the proposed wall between the United States and Mexico. President Trump has claimed that building the wall will protect the United States from terrorism, but the decision to cut homeland security seems to contradict this statement.
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To put this into perspective, consider the costs of protecting the First Family in New York City. First Lady Melania Trump has opted to stay in Trump Tower while their son Barron Trump attends school. Her detail is reportedly costing taxpayers upwards of $400,000 a day. If she remains at Trump Tower, it will cost nearly $148 million dollars a year. That’s more than the funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.
This weekend, President Trump will return to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for his fifth trip since the inauguration. Each trip costs $3 million dollars. So while the President is at the country club, his 2018 budget will literally starve the country’s elderly and veterans.
But the silver lining to this news, is that this budget will likely not pass. Key Republicans have criticized the bill and stated that they will not vote on the current budget as it stands. If this bill doesn’t pass, it will be President Trump’s third big loss since taking office. Trump’s proposed travel ban was struck down by a federal judge in Hawaii and the proposed American Healthcare Act has been reviled by Republicans, Democrats and medical providers.
