The Worst Parts Of Trump’s Disastrous 2020 Budget

Trump’s latest budget proposal doubles down on his health care sabotage, breaks his promise to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and would force taxpayers to pay for his ineffective and expensive border wall with across-the-board domestic spending cuts.

 

Here are just a few of the worst parts of Trump’s budget — it’s really bad:

Trump wants $8.6 billion in taxpayer money to fund his unnecessary and ineffective wall that he repeatedly promised Mexico would pay for.

 

Fox News: “Escalating Trump’s pursuit of wall funding, the White House in the new budget requested an additional $8.6 billion to build the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border—seeking $5 billion from Congress, plus $3.6 billion from the military construction budget, for fiscal 2020.”

Trump wants to cut $845 billion from Medicare, even though he has repeatedly promised to protect the program.

 

Washington Post: “Trump’s ‘Budget for a Better America’ also includes dozens of spending cuts and policy overhauls that frame the early stages of the debate for the 2020 election. For example, Trump for the first time calls for cutting $845 billion from Medicare, the popular health care program for the elderly that in the past he had largely said he would protect.”

 

Trump wants to turn Medicaid into a block grant program, slash its funding and eliminate the ACA’s expansion program.

 

Washington Post: “The spending plan calls for a cut of nearly $1.5 trillion in Medicaid over 10 years and for $1.2 trillion to be added for a new ‘Market Based Health Care Grant’ — that is, the block grants that would start in 2021. It also would eliminate funding for Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act has gone to about three dozen states over the past five years.”

Trump’s budget would reignite his cruel mission to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

 

Associated Press: “President Donald Trump’s budget would re-open two health care battles he already lost in his first year in office: repealing ‘Obamacare’ and limiting future federal spending on Medicaid for low-income people.”

 

Modern Healthcare: “Just like the 2019 budget, the fiscal 2020 budget proposal endorses failed legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act led by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.).”

 

Trump’s budget would slash funds from Social Security programs and other important safety nets for seniors and low-income Americans.

New York Times: “The administration also proposes spending $26 billion less on Social Security programs, including a $10 billion cut to the Social Security Disability Insurance program.”

New York Times: “Trump also proposes new work requirements for working-age adult recipients of food stamps, federal housing support and Medicaid, a move the administration said would reduce spending on those programs by $327 billion over a decade.”

Trump’s budget proposal once again undermines public schools with new tax credits to go toward private school tuition and major cuts to the Education Department.

 

Washington Examiner: “Today’s budget would also create $50 billion in new education tax credits aimed at private school tuition.”

 

Education Week: “President Donald Trump is seeking a 10 percent cut to the U.S. Department of Education’s budget in his fiscal 2020 budget proposal, which would cut the department’s spending by $7.1 billion down to $64 billion starting in October.”

 

Trump’s budget takes an ax to higher education, cutting $200 billion from student loan programs.

New York Times: “It would cut $200 billion from student loan programs.”

New York Times: “It would eliminate higher education programs, like the Public Service Loan Forgiveness and subsidized federal Stafford loans, and reduce work-study funding as Education Department officials tweak the program to offer more career-oriented jobs for low-income students.”

 

Trump’s budget would gut the EPA’s budget by nearly one-third.

 

Bloomberg: “Particularly hard hit would be the Environmental Protection Agency, and departments of State, Energy, Transportation and Agriculture. The EPA would receive a 31 percent cut compared with its December funding level, while State would receive a 23 percent cut and Housing and Urban Development would see a 16 percent cut.”

 

Trump’s budget would cut funding from international efforts to fight AIDS.

 

Associated Press: “The budget calls for a 22 percent cut to PEPFAR, the U.S. program that has helped treat millions internationally, mostly in Africa, according to The ONE Campaign. That global health advocacy organization is associated with the musician Bono.”

 

Associated Press: “Trump is also proposing to change the financing formula another program, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, so that the U.S. contribution is watered down. The budget calls for $1.1 billion for the Global Fund, down from $1.35 billion, the current level as reported by the Kaiser Family Foundation.”