SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Director of the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney listens to U.S. President Donald Trump speak during a "strategic initiatives" lunch at the White House in Washington, February 22. (Photo: Reuters)
Trump's Budget Is Immoral
The economic theory President Trump has embraced with this budget, trickle-down economics, is an abysmal failure and a fraud
May 24, 2017
The budget introduced this week by the Trump administration constitutes nothing less than a massive transfer of wealth from working families, the elderly, children, the sick and the poor to the top 1%.
It follows in the footsteps of the Trump-Ryan health care bill, which gives massive tax breaks to the people on top, while throwing 24 million Americans off of their health insurance and dramatically raising premiums for older workers.
At a time when the very rich are already getting much richer while the middle class continues to shrink, this is a budget for the billionaire class, for Wall Street, for corporate CEOs, and for the wealthiest people in this country.
"At a time when the very rich are already getting much richer while the middle class continues to shrink, this is a budget for the billionaire class, for Wall Street, for corporate CEOs, and for the wealthiest people in this country."
This is a budget that says that if you are the richest family in America, you will get a multi-billion-dollar tax break through the repeal of the estate tax. But, at the same time, if you are a lower income senior citizen you will not be able to get the one nutritious meal a day you now receive through the Meals on Wheels program or the help you desperately need if you have a disability and are trying to survive on a $1,200 a month Social Security check.
This is a budget that says that if you are the second-wealthiest family in America -- a family that has contributed many hundreds of millions to the Republican Party -- billions are also coming your way. But if you are a working-class student trying to figure out how you could possibly afford college, your dream of a college education could evaporate because of more than $143 billion in cuts to student financial assistance programs.
This is a budget which offers you tax breaks if you are a member of the Trump family, but if you are a child of a working class family you could well lose the health insurance you currently have through the Children's Health Insurance program and massive cuts to Medicaid. At a time when we remain one of the only major countries on earth not to guarantee health care to all, this budget makes a bad situation worse in terms of health care.
When Donald Trump campaigned for president, he told the American people that he would be a different type of Republican, one who would take on the political and economic establishment, stand up for working people, and consider the pain that families all over this country were feeling.
Sadly, this budget exposes all of that verbiage for what it really was -- cheap campaign rhetoric that was meant to get votes.
During the campaign, candidate Trump tweeted: "I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid." But it wasn't just a tweet. It was a cornerstone of his campaign.
On April 18, 2015, Trump said: "Every Republican wants to do a big number on Social Security, they want to do it on Medicare, they want to do it on Medicaid. And we can't do that."
But now that he is President, Donald Trump has proposed a budget that would cut Social Security for people with severe disabilities, raid Medicare and gut Medicaid by more than a trillion dollars over the next decade. He has put his name on a budget which will make it harder for our children to get a decent education, harder for working families to get the health care they desperately need, harder for families to put food on the table, harder to protect our environment, and harder for the elderly to live out their retirement years in dignity.
Let's be clear about something else: the economic theory President Trump has embraced with this budget, trickle-down economics, is an abysmal failure and a fraud.
Since Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush slashed taxes on the wealthy and deregulated Wall Street, trillions of dollars in wealth have been redistributed from the middle class and working families to a handful of millionaires and billionaires.
Today, we have more wealth and income inequality than at any time since the 1920s. The top one-tenth of 1% owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90%. The Trump budget would make a bad situation worse by widening that gap with its trillions of cuts to social programs and gifts to the top 1%.
Trump's budget is not a moral budget and it must be soundly defeated.
Join Us: News for people demanding a better world
Common Dreams is powered by optimists who believe in the power of informed and engaged citizens to ignite and enact change to make the world a better place. We're hundreds of thousands strong, but every single supporter makes the difference. Your contribution supports this bold media model—free, independent, and dedicated to reporting the facts every day. Stand with us in the fight for economic equality, social justice, human rights, and a more sustainable future. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover the issues the corporate media never will. |
© 2023 Cable News Network
Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006 after serving 16 years in the House of Representatives. Sanders ran to become the Democratic Party presidential nominee in both 2016 and 2020 and remains the longest-serving independent member of Congress in American history. Elected Mayor of Burlington, Vermont in 1981, he served four terms. Before his 1990 election as Vermont's at-large member in Congress, Sanders lectured at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and at Hamilton College in upstate New York.
The budget introduced this week by the Trump administration constitutes nothing less than a massive transfer of wealth from working families, the elderly, children, the sick and the poor to the top 1%.
It follows in the footsteps of the Trump-Ryan health care bill, which gives massive tax breaks to the people on top, while throwing 24 million Americans off of their health insurance and dramatically raising premiums for older workers.
At a time when the very rich are already getting much richer while the middle class continues to shrink, this is a budget for the billionaire class, for Wall Street, for corporate CEOs, and for the wealthiest people in this country.
"At a time when the very rich are already getting much richer while the middle class continues to shrink, this is a budget for the billionaire class, for Wall Street, for corporate CEOs, and for the wealthiest people in this country."
This is a budget that says that if you are the richest family in America, you will get a multi-billion-dollar tax break through the repeal of the estate tax. But, at the same time, if you are a lower income senior citizen you will not be able to get the one nutritious meal a day you now receive through the Meals on Wheels program or the help you desperately need if you have a disability and are trying to survive on a $1,200 a month Social Security check.
This is a budget that says that if you are the second-wealthiest family in America -- a family that has contributed many hundreds of millions to the Republican Party -- billions are also coming your way. But if you are a working-class student trying to figure out how you could possibly afford college, your dream of a college education could evaporate because of more than $143 billion in cuts to student financial assistance programs.
This is a budget which offers you tax breaks if you are a member of the Trump family, but if you are a child of a working class family you could well lose the health insurance you currently have through the Children's Health Insurance program and massive cuts to Medicaid. At a time when we remain one of the only major countries on earth not to guarantee health care to all, this budget makes a bad situation worse in terms of health care.
When Donald Trump campaigned for president, he told the American people that he would be a different type of Republican, one who would take on the political and economic establishment, stand up for working people, and consider the pain that families all over this country were feeling.
Sadly, this budget exposes all of that verbiage for what it really was -- cheap campaign rhetoric that was meant to get votes.
During the campaign, candidate Trump tweeted: "I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid." But it wasn't just a tweet. It was a cornerstone of his campaign.
On April 18, 2015, Trump said: "Every Republican wants to do a big number on Social Security, they want to do it on Medicare, they want to do it on Medicaid. And we can't do that."
But now that he is President, Donald Trump has proposed a budget that would cut Social Security for people with severe disabilities, raid Medicare and gut Medicaid by more than a trillion dollars over the next decade. He has put his name on a budget which will make it harder for our children to get a decent education, harder for working families to get the health care they desperately need, harder for families to put food on the table, harder to protect our environment, and harder for the elderly to live out their retirement years in dignity.
Let's be clear about something else: the economic theory President Trump has embraced with this budget, trickle-down economics, is an abysmal failure and a fraud.
Since Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush slashed taxes on the wealthy and deregulated Wall Street, trillions of dollars in wealth have been redistributed from the middle class and working families to a handful of millionaires and billionaires.
Today, we have more wealth and income inequality than at any time since the 1920s. The top one-tenth of 1% owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90%. The Trump budget would make a bad situation worse by widening that gap with its trillions of cuts to social programs and gifts to the top 1%.
Trump's budget is not a moral budget and it must be soundly defeated.
Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006 after serving 16 years in the House of Representatives. Sanders ran to become the Democratic Party presidential nominee in both 2016 and 2020 and remains the longest-serving independent member of Congress in American history. Elected Mayor of Burlington, Vermont in 1981, he served four terms. Before his 1990 election as Vermont's at-large member in Congress, Sanders lectured at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and at Hamilton College in upstate New York.
The budget introduced this week by the Trump administration constitutes nothing less than a massive transfer of wealth from working families, the elderly, children, the sick and the poor to the top 1%.
It follows in the footsteps of the Trump-Ryan health care bill, which gives massive tax breaks to the people on top, while throwing 24 million Americans off of their health insurance and dramatically raising premiums for older workers.
At a time when the very rich are already getting much richer while the middle class continues to shrink, this is a budget for the billionaire class, for Wall Street, for corporate CEOs, and for the wealthiest people in this country.
"At a time when the very rich are already getting much richer while the middle class continues to shrink, this is a budget for the billionaire class, for Wall Street, for corporate CEOs, and for the wealthiest people in this country."
This is a budget that says that if you are the richest family in America, you will get a multi-billion-dollar tax break through the repeal of the estate tax. But, at the same time, if you are a lower income senior citizen you will not be able to get the one nutritious meal a day you now receive through the Meals on Wheels program or the help you desperately need if you have a disability and are trying to survive on a $1,200 a month Social Security check.
This is a budget that says that if you are the second-wealthiest family in America -- a family that has contributed many hundreds of millions to the Republican Party -- billions are also coming your way. But if you are a working-class student trying to figure out how you could possibly afford college, your dream of a college education could evaporate because of more than $143 billion in cuts to student financial assistance programs.
This is a budget which offers you tax breaks if you are a member of the Trump family, but if you are a child of a working class family you could well lose the health insurance you currently have through the Children's Health Insurance program and massive cuts to Medicaid. At a time when we remain one of the only major countries on earth not to guarantee health care to all, this budget makes a bad situation worse in terms of health care.
When Donald Trump campaigned for president, he told the American people that he would be a different type of Republican, one who would take on the political and economic establishment, stand up for working people, and consider the pain that families all over this country were feeling.
Sadly, this budget exposes all of that verbiage for what it really was -- cheap campaign rhetoric that was meant to get votes.
During the campaign, candidate Trump tweeted: "I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid." But it wasn't just a tweet. It was a cornerstone of his campaign.
On April 18, 2015, Trump said: "Every Republican wants to do a big number on Social Security, they want to do it on Medicare, they want to do it on Medicaid. And we can't do that."
But now that he is President, Donald Trump has proposed a budget that would cut Social Security for people with severe disabilities, raid Medicare and gut Medicaid by more than a trillion dollars over the next decade. He has put his name on a budget which will make it harder for our children to get a decent education, harder for working families to get the health care they desperately need, harder for families to put food on the table, harder to protect our environment, and harder for the elderly to live out their retirement years in dignity.
Let's be clear about something else: the economic theory President Trump has embraced with this budget, trickle-down economics, is an abysmal failure and a fraud.
Since Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush slashed taxes on the wealthy and deregulated Wall Street, trillions of dollars in wealth have been redistributed from the middle class and working families to a handful of millionaires and billionaires.
Today, we have more wealth and income inequality than at any time since the 1920s. The top one-tenth of 1% owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90%. The Trump budget would make a bad situation worse by widening that gap with its trillions of cuts to social programs and gifts to the top 1%.
Trump's budget is not a moral budget and it must be soundly defeated.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.