Posted on 02/09/2020 11:50:19 AM PST by karpov
President Trump is expected to release a $4.8 trillion budget Monday that charts a path for the start of a potential second term, proposing steep cuts to social-safety-net programs and foreign aid and higher outlays for defense and veterans.
The plan would increase military spending 0.3%, to $740.5 billion for fiscal year 2021, which begins Oct. 1, according to a senior administration official. The proposal would cut nondefense spending by 5%, to $590 billion, below the level Congress and the president agreed to in a two-year budget deal last summer.
A White House budget reflects an administration’s priorities and represents the opening bid in spending negotiations for the next fiscal year. The new budget proposal is unlikely to become law, however, as Democrats control the House and spending bills in the GOP-led Senate need bipartisan support.
This year, the budget also reveals Mr. Trump’s fiscal policy objectives should he win reelection in November, and his campaign messaging will likely reflect its broad strokes. The president’s aides have been meeting since late last year to craft a second-term agenda.
Among the agencies that would receive the biggest boost is NASA, which would see a 12% increase next year as Mr. Trump seeks to fulfill his goal of returning astronauts to the moon by 2024. On the other hand, the Environmental Protection Agency’s spending would be slashed by 26%.
The plan would request $2 billion in new funding for construction of the wall on the southern U.S. border, the senior administration official said—Mr. Trump’s signature 2016 campaign promise that sparked fights with Democrats in Congress, leading the president to trigger a historic five-week government shutdown last winter after lawmakers refused to fund the project. The latest $2 billion request is significantly less than the $5 billion the administration sought last year.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
All Presidents from Reagan on, with the exception of Clinton, get Fs on the deficit and the debt. On everything else I would give Trump As and Bs on.
The problem we have is one half of Americans refuse to allow any cuts on social programs and the other half refuses to allow any increases in taxes. So the politicians borrow to fund the programs Americans want.
Eventually it will get so bad that either the whole thing will collapse or politicians will be forced to cut programs and raise taxes.
Same reason why our taxes are too high, lol.
Exactly what unconstitutional programs are you talking about?
Not worth the effort to read.
Wail street urinal.
Demand zero-based budgeting from ALL Federal departments.
Stop this ridiculous budgeting model used at Federal and State government levels. If you only budget starting from last year’s funding level, you’ll likely NEVER get real fiscal restraint...as we’ve seen for the last 100 years.
Make EVERY department justify EVERY dollar, EVERY year.
Excellent post, Jim W N.
Returning FedGov back within the confines of the Constitution would be a GREAT step to reclaiming the nation from the socialists and the pubbies, too.
DOA
The federal budget is like the plant in “Little Shop of Horrors”.
FEED ME! First it asks nicely and as it grows stronger and bigger it ends up taking over everything and demanding everything.
Our rotten legislators want their cut - the bigger the pie the more to spread around.
No sh!t Sherlock, however, the Budget and Accounting of 1921 requires the Pres. to submit a budget by early February, around the first or second Monday.
“Trump to Propose $4.8 Trillion Budget With Big Safety-Net Cuts”
Remember when WSJ wasn’t run by left wing hacks like the rest of them?
One calling for cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security? The political ads just write themselves.
Get serious. Eliminate the following departments and let the states decide if they want to pick up the functions:
Education, Labor, Commerce, HUD, Transportation, Agriculture. Privatize Amtrak and the Post Office without subsidies.
Cut the bureaucracy in the remaining departments by 10% across the board. Cut contractors by at least 50%.
Even defense should not be spared the ax. It makes no sense to have more Admirals than ships in the Navy. It also makes no sense to have Army Lt. Colonels in the White House sitting in on presidential phone calls with foreign leaders and presuming their point of view regarding policy is superior to the president.
Eliminate foreign aid and cut the State Department payroll by 25%. Reduce the number of embassies and consulates. Do we really need a full diplomatic presence in every far away country? If we eliminate foreign aid we certainly will not need people stationed around the world to administer the aid.
Tell our “allies” — Europe, Japan, Korea they have 5 years to get their defenses in shape because we are pulling our troops scattered around the planet home.
Immediately eliminate all welfare, medical care, and social services for people in the country illegally. Announce to all non-citizens, who are in the country illegally they have 60 days to leave and the government will pay for one way transportation home.
Eliminate anchor babies People born in the US of two non-citizens should not be citizens or eligible for the rights and benefits of citizens.
Wilbur Ross and other businessmen know how to cut organizations while increasing productivity. The government is overdue for the same downsizing US corporations endured during the 1980’s, 1990’s and early 2000’s. Cabinet Secretaries and agency heads must scrutinize every program and ruthlessly cut those not succeeding or no longer required.
Institute real baseline budgeting. A baseline is not an automatic 5-8% increase, a baseline is same as prior year. Freeze agencies budgets for 4 years and force them to prioritize programs. If they need more money to support A priority programs, they need to cut or eliminate D priority programs.
Be nice if the budget could be less than one trillion.
Probably about $1 trillion. Totally unacceptable, irresponsible, and ill-advised.
OK, well it’s hard to know if you’re actually serious but let’s start with a common misunderstand about the Constitution which ties back to the persuasive authority of the Declaration of Independence, the framework within which the U.S. Constitution was formed.
The Declaration of Independence states “[A]ll men…are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” We are born with our God-given rights and freedoms. Man or his government doesn’t give us our rights and freedom, God does.
Thus the Constitution, if read carefully, is a legal document that, by the states and the people, creates the federal government and delegates certain specific, limited powers to the feds. If it’s not an enumerated power listed in the Constitution, the feds are not empowered. And OBTW, the Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land over the feds (U.S. Const., Art. VI, Cl 2).
Having laid that foundation, to answer your question, what about the feds is unconstitutional? The answer is almost all of the current federal government is not authorized by the Constitution. So if unconstitutional acts of the feds is tyranny, then we are under mostly tyranny. The feds have become a basically totalitarian power.
ALL of the unconstitutional, useless, and harmful departments, agencies, and bureaucracies listed below need to be NUKED because there is no constitutional authority delegated to the feds to meddle in these areas. These deal with issues that are state’s issues for the people of each state to handle as they see fit. These are not constitutionally authorized federal issues:
Unconstitutional Cabinet Bureaucracies:
Department of Health and Human Services ($1 TRILLION budget!!!)
Department of Energy
Department of Education
Department of Labor
Department of Agriculture
Department of Commerce
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Department of Transportation
Independent Federal Administrative and Regulatory System: All 67 agencies and bureaucracies of the unconstitutional fourth-branch fiefdom including:
EPA
FCC
FTC
SBA (Small Business Administration)
That’s a good start at least.
Nope...an F-.
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