In response to President Donald Trump’s 2020 budget proposal, Sen. Bernie Sanders recently issued a press release denouncing the plan as “dead on arrival” and merely seeking to increase the defense budget by taking more than a trillion dollars from education, health care, and other government programs. Although Trump’s budget proposal seeks to increase base defense spending by more than $860 billion over the next 10 years, Sen. Sanders argues that the money is more than enough to make public colleges and universities tuition free instead.
On Monday, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, Sen. Sanders, wrote in a press release: “The Trump budget is breathtaking in its degree of cruelty and filled with broken promises. Donald Trump promised the American people that he would be a different type of Republican, that he would be a champion of the working American and that he would not cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. But his budget does the exact opposite of what he promised the American people.
“At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, Trump’s budget pays for his huge tax break to the top one percent by cutting $1.5 trillion from Medicaid, $845 billion from Medicare and $25 billion from Social Security. Make no mistake about it: Trump’s budget is a massive transfer of wealth from working class families to the wealthiest people and most profitable corporations in America.”
According to Trump’s proposed budget, he plans to cut Medicaid by nearly $1.5 trillion over 10 years, Medicare by $845 billion over 10 years, and Social Security by $25 billion over 10 years, while increasing defense spending by $34 billion next year alone to $750 billion.
Trump’s budget also plans to cut $207 billion from college affordability programs over 10 years including the elimination of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and subsidized student loans, while cutting $220 billion over 10 years from the Food Stamp program.
“At a time when the U.S. already spends more on the military than the next 10 countries combined, Trump is proposing an $861 billion increase in base defense spending over a 10-year period,” Sanders continued. “And he proposes to pay for it by cutting over $1 trillion from education, affordable housing, nutrition assistance and the needs of working families over a 10-year period. Trump’s proposed increase in base Pentagon spending could make public colleges and universities tuition-free over the next decade.
“This is a budget for the military industrial complex, for corporate CEOs, for Wall Street and for the billionaire class. It is dead on arrival. We don’t need billions of dollars for a wall that no one wants. We need a budget that works for all Americans, not just Donald Trump and his billionaire friends at Mar-A-Lago.”
Sanders pointed out that Trump’s budget plans to cut environmental protection by over 31 percent next year, transportation by over 22 percent next year, and affordable housing by over 16 percent next year. The proposed budged would also cut health and human services by over 12 percent next year.
On Monday, Sanders took to Twitter and wrote, “We spend more on the military than the next 10 countries combined. Now Trump is proposing an $861 billion increase in base defense spending over 10 years. And he wants to pay for it by cutting over $1 trillion from programs working families depend on. That is a disgrace.”
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