President Trump’s first budget plan seeks to increase the spending of defense and immigration sectors. However, the same plan would lead to deep cuts in the budgets of the Environmental Protection Agency, the State Department and even small programs such as Amtrak. Many agencies have taken cuts amounting to percentages in double digits. However, for the more unfortunate, government funding has ceased altogether.
If the planned budget is adopted, The Weatherization Assistance Program, The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, The National Endowment for the Arts, Community Development grants and The Corporation for Public Broadcasting would all their funding completely cut off from the treasury’s outlay.
Right below these programs to be eliminated lies the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. This program will receive reductions in funding that would total to 97 percent.
For the EPA, funding would decrease by 31 percent. This is as a result of $5.7 billion being allocated in the budget plan for their funding from a previous $8.2 billion. Shockingly, this would put the agency’s budget at “its lowest level in 40 years, adjusted for inflation.” The agency’s administrator, Scott Pruitt, had requested a $7 billion budget for this financial year.
The State Department would receive financial cuts ranging between 28 and 31 percent in the proposed budget plan. President Trump had initially targeted decreases for this department’s funding totaling to 37 percent. He was however forced to drop his proposed cuts as a result of resistance from Congress and Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson.
Other areas that would receive significant blows in their funding would also include public education. The Essential Air Service program which provides air transport in remote locations by keeping functional airports in these regions is also set to have a smaller budget in President Trump’s plan.
Notably, the $3 billion of annual funding to Israel will not be affected by Trump’s proposed plan.
As other programs suffer decreases, government spending on defense is set to increase by $54 billion according to Budget Director Mick Mulvaney. However, after close inspection, the figure seems to be closer to $18 billion as compared to former President Obama’s last funding towards this sector.
The budget plan will supposedly not include any details on programs which the government has to sufficiently fund. These include Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid. Instead, the government will focus on outlining funding in sectors where it can increase or decrease budgets at its discretion. In their report, Thrush and Davenport write that the plan is “more of a broad political statement than a detailed plan for spending and taxation.”
Looming uncertainty on the proposed uncertainty means there will be some conflicts as to its implementation. Already, there are reports that some government officials are defending the continuity of funding for some programs. Senator Rob Portman, Congress Representative for Ohio, said that he would fight for the Great Lakes Initiative to continue receiving its usual funding. Additionally, Senator Lindsey Graham has described President Trump’s proposed state department cuts as “dead on arrival.”
Whatever the proposal’s implementation will finally include, it is quite clear what the priorities of the Trump administration are.
