President Donald Trump unveiled a budget today that’s in line with his stated priorities of restoring America’s military, securing our border, and draining the swamp. And liberals are absolutely losing their mind. As Newsmax reports:
President Donald Trump unveiled a $1.15 trillion budget Thursday, a far-reaching overhaul of federal government spending that slashes many domestic programs to finance a significant increase in the military and make a down payment on a U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Thursday’s budget proposal seeks to upend Washington with cuts to long-promised campaign targets like foreign aid and the Environmental Protection Agency as well as strong congressional favorites such as medical research, help for homeless veterans and community development grants.
“A budget that puts America first must make the safety of our people its number one priority — because without safety, there can be no prosperity,” Trump said in a message accompanying his proposed budget that was titled “America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again.”
The response has been predictable. Liberals are acting as if Donald Trump is going to starve your grandmother, bury the planet in garbage, and kick your dog. Seriously. Liberal journalist Nicholas Kristof tweeted:
“I feel as the Romans must have felt in 456 AD as the barbarians conquered and ushered in the dark ages.”
In response to news that massive spending on climate change would no longer be a thing, comedian Patton Oswalt Tweeted:
I hope he faces an international criminal court for this. This is terrorism by neglect & ignorance. https://t.co/xfs3LNEM4Z
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) March 16, 2017
As you might imagine, the awesomeness of this budget can be measured in gallons of liberal tears.
That’s not to say it’s perfect. There’s a lot of big spending, but it’s where the cuts happened that matter now and in the long term. Writing at the Federalist, David Harsanyi notes:
While the White House’s budget blueprint, unsurprisingly titled “America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again,” contains some sound fiscal conservative cuts, it’s not a free-market budget because Donald Trump is not a fiscal conservative. The blueprint, in fact, is less of a budgeting document than a plan to begin rolling back some of the worst excesses of the bureaucratic state. Maybe that’s just as good right now.
Under Trump’s budget, the Education Department would see a 14 percent cut, which, for those who believe the federal government should have no role in local education, is around 86 percent too little. The good news is that $1.4 billion will be re-allocated to encourage local charter schools, private schools, and school-choice initiatives that will help minority and low-income children escape from failing schools. This might be the best “investment” the DOE has ever made for poor kids.
The budget would cut federal funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. There are numerous ideological reasons to oppose the state’s funding of arts, but the truth is that PBS gets only around 15 percent of its budget from the government; NPR gets 2 percent, though it might be more because it’s difficult to tell due to opaque budgeting. Surely, concerned lovers of snooty British television will help make up for this difference in fundraising.
It should be noted that the budget proposes to eliminate funding for 18 other agencies, including the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and U.S. Institute of Peace. It also proposes to cut some of the payments to the authoritarian-infested United Nation via reductions in their climate change programs and “peacekeeping” efforts.
Trump’s budget isn’t great because it cuts government overall. It’s great because it cuts the part of government that are wholly unnecessary. The administrative state has grown expansively over the last fifty years, with dozens of alphabet soup agencies regulating every aspect of American life. Presidents like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush tried to use many of these agencies to achieve their own ends. Trump is taking the first step towards burning them down.
There’s still work to be done, but this blueprint is an excellent start.
