The President this week revealed his priorities for the discretionary portion of the federal budget for the next fiscal year, and those priorities reveal his abysmal failure to support the hardworking Americans who gave him their support in the 2016 elections.

There is a $54 billion boost for the military and Homeland Security and a stick in the eye for any program designed to provide a social safety net for Americans just getting by.

First, the $54 billion is for the largest, most powerful military ever assembled on the planet. U.S. military spending is currently nearly 40 percent of what the entire planet spends to defend and attack others. Our budget is larger than the next seven nations combined. And this is a peacetime budget getting a 10 percent boost as a reward for no longer being at war (continuing operations in the Middle East considered). Historically, when at peace, our military budget shrinks, not rises. But the Trump administration prefers fear over reason, and then argues that only through fear-induced spending can he protect us.

While we have the largest military budget in the world, by far, among the developed nations of OECD, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, we have nearly the smallest social safety net among the 28 developed member nations. Only two member nations spend a smaller percentage of GDP than the U.S. on social services encompassing the broad range of support for housing to healthcare to unemployment.

The U.S. is among the lowest supporters of families with children, those with disabilities, and the unemployed. We are among the top safety net providers in no areas of measurement.

So we are a developed nation with the smallest of social safety nets, the largest of military spending programs, and the prescription by our president for America is to increase military spending and reduce and eliminate significant portions of the safety net.

If you voted for President Trump, and you are not showered with personal wealth, you may have thought as president, Donald Trump would have your interests at heart. You would be wrong.

Two-thirds of Americans report that they could not come up with $1,000 if it was needed immediately. That means most Americans, who hope to never need the social safety net, may well need it sometime in their lives. If the Trump budget passes, here is what you may miss:

Legal Aid would end entirely. Be prepared to hire your own attorney; public broadcasting (PBS) support will end, say goodbye to Big Bird; all support for the arts will disappear from the federal budget and, likely, from your local school and community.

Community Block grants, used to help cities demolish decaying houses, replace ancient water lines, and fill other critical local needs, will end; low income heating assistance will be gone.
Want to be a homeowner? The programs to help first time homeowners will end; neighborhood revitalization programs will be gone; affordable housing projects will be cut entirely from the budget.

The EPA will be slashed, the State Department reduced by nearly a third. Farming protections will end, and, from the health care bill in Congress now, health care costs will rise and benefits will be reduced. Medicaid will begin a gradual winddown.

But you can feel safe knowing that our navy’s 19 aircraft carriers (no other nation has more than one) will dominate the seas, and our 76 nuclear submarines (the largest fleet on the planet) will roam the seas ready to fire at will.

And you can have The Wall…it makes the new budget, and not because they Mexicans are paying for it…they are not.

If you thought this president would have your back, you would be wrong.

 

Jim Crawford is a retired educator and political enthusiast living here in the Tri-State.