If at first you don’t succeed…
An interesting breakdown of the budget that Trump just signed.
What’s in the bill:
- The U.S. Census saw a $1.34 billion increase, “double what the Trump administration requested,” CBS reports.
- Trump proposed last year to cut nonmilitary spending by $54 billion. That didn’t happen, Politico reports.
- It doesn’t eliminate funding to Planned Parenthood, something conservatives were betting on, per the Daily Caller.
- In July, the House Appropriations subcommittee on transportation voted to cut funding for TIGER, a grant program created by Obama. Under the new budget bill, its funding was tripled.
- Per Politico, the bill doesn’t “add new detention beds for undocumented immigrants,” like Trump wanted.
- Axios’ Jonathan Swan and Stef Kight reported this week that Republicans failed to cut federal funds to sanctuary cities in the bill.
- When Trump threatened a veto, he acknowledged that the “BORDER WALL, which is desperately needed for our National Defense, is not fully funded.”
- Trump proposed in February to replace food stamps with monthly boxes of nonperishable foods. Politico reports that didn’t receive funding.
- Per Politico, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Legal Services Corporation were provided with “modest funding increases,” despite the plan to get rid of them.
- Trump proposed cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and Pell Grants. Each of these saw an increase in funding.
- The Department of Energy’s renewables budget was raised by 14%, despite Trump’s desired cuts.
NASA’s budget was also restored, which is great news.
Trump knew that to veto it and negotiate would take work. And he wanted to golf this weekend, so… signed!
If I were Trump I’d be furious at Republican Congressional leaders. Obviously they knew they were jamming him up with a bill that his base would hate. So is this them sending Trump a message that they no longer sell his type of crazy in Congress?
I mean really, there’s hardly anything for Republicans to like about this bill, other than a small increase in military spending. Dems get tons of their priorities funded or not cut like was threatened. It really is a budget that Obama would have passed happily.
So why did it happen?
You quoted the answer. It would have interrupted his weekend. I have no doubt that was the main reason.
I have no idea! It’s completely inscrutable.
For fun, I like to take a peek at the Trump subreddit at times like this, just to see how they react to it. It’s fascinating. On Thursday, they were fellating Rand Paul for speaking out against the bill, going on and on about how they knew Trump wouldn’t let them down. On Friday morning, they were beside themselves after Trump tweeted about vetoing, and then…
He signs it, and they basically flip to “Trust Trump, he knows what he’s doing.”
From a fiscal and social conservative standpoint, it makes no sense! Head Start, which almost exclusively serves poor minorities, got extra funding, including money for schools in Puerto Rico. Like, what the fuck? This congress passed that?
I’m glad it happened, but I don’t understand it. Are the Democrats actually outmaneuvering the Republican majority?
I don’t give them that much credit. I think the republicans are terrified to do anything that might be viewed as unpopular in the current political climate.
Primarily, the House Freedom Caucus. Republicans would not have the numbers to pass something they’d want, the gov’t would shutdown, GOP would get the blame and this close to elections (and after what happened in PA) they had to get something done.
That and governing takes work. Republicans don’t like doing that.
Uh oh, the home office isn’t going to be pleased.
It’s a massive increase in military spending.
How big is it? And how distributed? Mostly to exotic expensive weapons systems, probably? Or (gasp) better pay for sailors, soldiers and airmen and women?
Yeah, the defense spending is still the bulk of the bill by raw numbers:
Holy crap, that’s amazing.
Also the NEA and lots of other programs.
Of course what with the recent tax cuts it will blow up the deficit at the wrong time (which might trigger inflation), and which the GOP will use as an excuse to go after SS, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, National Parks, you name it.
First Trump signs a pretty decent budget and now he’s suggesting using military money to build the wall. Good week? Great week!
Yeah, that’s not really how military spending works.