Page 4 - ARUBA TODAY

A4 U.S. NEWS
Monday 10 February 2020
Trump budget to face skepticism, be overwhelmed by politics

By ANDREW TAYLOR that’s political poison in Ne-
Associated Press vada. The White House also
WASHINGTON (AP) — Con- leaked word of a $25 billion
fronted with trillion-dollar- proposal for “Revitalizing
plus deficits for as far as Rural America” with grants
the eye can see, President for broadband Internet ac-
Donald Trump is offering a cess and other traditional
budget plan that rehashes infrastructure projects such
previously rejected spend- as roads and bridges.
ing cuts while leaving So- The Trump budget also
cial Security and Medicare promises a $3 billion in-
benefits untouched. crease — to $25 billion —
Trump’s fiscal 2021 bud- for NASA in hopes of return-
get plan, expected to be ing astronauts to the moon
released Monday, isn’t and on to Mars. It also is
likely to generate a seri- likely to reprise his small-
ous Washington dialogue bore infrastructure initiative
about what to do, if any- — proposed in prior years
thing this election year, to provide just $200 billion in
about entrenched fiscal new federal contributions
problems that have deficits — while proposing a mod-
surging despite a healthy est parental leave plan.
economy. It was being re- Trump had made a bit of
leased on the eve of the This Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019, file photo shows the White House in Washington. a stir last month at a meet-
New Hampshire primary, a Associated Press ing of global economic
move that minimizes atten- elites in Davos, Switzerland,
tion. — Trump, the Democratic- less rate while ignoring the doned the cause that de- when he told a CNBC inter-
A blueprint written as if controlled House or the government’s budget. fined, at least in part, their viewer that “at some point”
Trump could enact it with- GOP-held Senate — has On Capitol Hill, Democrats successful takeover of the he would consider curbs to
out congressional approv- any interest in tackling a controlling the House have House a decade ago. popular benefit programs
al, the budget proposal re- chronic budget gap that seen their number of defi- Trump has succumbed to like Medicare and Social
lies on rosy economic pro- forces the government to cit-conscious “Blue Dogs” the Washington temptation Security.
jections and fanciful claims borrow 22 cents of every shrink while the roster of to deliver spending increas- “At the right time, we will
of future cuts to domestic dollar it spends. lawmakers favoring costly es and tax cuts first and take a look at that,” Trump
programs to show that it is Trump’s reelection cam- “Medicare for All” and then deal — or not — with said. “You know, that’s
possible to bend the deficit paign, meanwhile, is fo- “Green New Deal” propos- their impact on the deficit. actually the easiest of all
curve in the right direction. cused on the economy als has swelled. Tea party Trump and key administra- things.” After Saturday’s
The reality is that no one and the historically low job- Republicans have aban- tion figures such as Treasury tweet, an administration
Secretary Steven Mnuchin official said, “Every current
had promised that Trump’s beneficiary will keep their
signature cuts to corpo- benefits as the President
rate and individual tax has always promised.”
rates would pay for them- Trump has proposed mod-
selves; instead the deficit est adjustments to eligibility
spiked by more than $300 for Social Security disability
billion over 2017 to 2019, benefits and he’s proposed
falling just short of $1 tril- cuts to Medicare providers
lion. Trump has also signed such as hospitals, but the
two broader budget deals real cost driver of Medicare
worked out by Democrats and Social Security is the
and Republicans to get rid ongoing retirement surge
of spending cuts left over of the baby boom-genera-
from a failed 2011 bud- tion and health care costs
get accord. The result has that continue to outpace
been eye-popping spend- inflation.
ing levels for defense — to With Medicare and Social
about $750 billion this year Security largely off the ta-
— and comparable gains ble, Trump has instead fo-
for domestic programs fa- cused on Medicaid, which
vored by Democrats. provides care to more than
The White House hasn’t 70 million poor and dis-
done much to draw atten- abled people. President
tion to this year’s budget re- Barack Obama success-
lease, though Trump has re- fully expanded Medicaid
vealed initiatives of interest when passing the Afford-
to key 2020 battleground able Care Act a decade
states, such as an increase ago, but Trump has en-
to $250 million to restore dorsed GOP plans — they
Florida’s Everglades and a failed spectacularly in the
move to finally abandon Senate two years ago —
a multibillion-dollar, never to dramatically curb the
used, nuclear waste dump program.q