Trump unveils budget proposal with trillion-dollar deficit

Artistic rendering of Trump’s budget plan

One of the innumerable matters Republicans are hypocrites about is the economy – under every Democratic president they whine nonstop about how terrible their opponents’ fiscal policy is even as the economy grows, but the moment they take the White House they push through budgets that worsen the deficit, all the while blaming it on the predecessor. The cycle’s been repeating itself for decades and it’s only becoming more obvious with each new administration.

Now Trump, breaking new ground in hypocrisy as always, is no longer even trying to pretend his party’s policies will do anything towards balancing the budget:

President Trump is remaking the Republican economic playbook in his own image, abandoning ideological consistency in ­favor of a debt-busting strategy that will upend how Washington taxes and spends trillions of dollars each year.

On Monday, Trump is slated to announce a new budget plan that will no longer seek to eliminate the deficit over the next decade, forfeiting a major Republican goal, according to three people familiar with the document.

Just how bad is the proposed budget? It literally sets a new record:

President Donald Trump unveiled a $4.4 trillion budget for next year that heralds an era of $1 trillion-plus federal deficits and — unlike the plan he released last year — never comes close to promising a balanced ledger even after 10 years.

The budget submitted Monday shows the growing deficits despite major cuts for domestic programs, largely because of last year’s tax overhaul, which is projected to cause federal tax revenue to drop. […]

The president’s budget proposes dramatic cuts to a wide range of domestic agencies from the Departments of Labor and Interior to the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation. Unlike last year’s submission, the 2019 Trump plan would cut Medicare by $554 billion over the next 10 years, a 6 percent reduction from projected spending, including cuts in Medicare payments going to hospitals and rehabilitation centers.

A few snapshots of the $4.4T Trump budget:

* 27% cut to State Dept
*34% cut to EPA
* 14% increase for Pentagon
*$18B over 2 yrs for border wall
*2019 deficit projected at $984B; red ink totals $7.1T over 10 yrs
*Entitlement cuts of $1.7T over a decade, incl $237B from Medicare

— Laura Litvan (@LauraLitvan) February 12, 2018

A trillion-dollar deficit. That’s what comes out of slashing taxes for the rich and pumping even more lard into the bloated military, all the whilst kneecapping government programs that actually do some good. Oh, and don’t forget that stupid fucking wall boondoggle.

To be clear, Trump’s proposal still has to be debated and passed by Congress, where it will get changed in any number of ways. But the brazenness with which he and his Republican team are dropping any pretense of giving a damn about balancing the book is remarkable, and it makes it all the more astounding that anyone can still listen to Republicans talk about the economy without laughing or throwing something at the TV.

(via Joe.My.God. [1, 2])