Kerstin Diehn
To understand the magnitude of Donald Trump’s distorted priorities, we compared Pentagon spending, which Trump wants to increase, with the domestic programs he wants to cut. To help pay for more defense spending, Trump’s budget proposal imposes massive cuts to domestic programs—from foreign aid to research on climate change to safeguards for clean air and water to meals on wheels for the elderly and after-school programs for kids.
Trump also proposes completely eliminating federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and National Public Radio, as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities. He takes and axe to federal funding for libraries and museums.
If we can cut enough librarians, scientists and after-school programs for kids, Trump’s budget director calculates, we can fund more weapons programs—including a renewed investment in nuclear weapons.
Congress will have a lot to say about this plan in the coming weeks.
The Paul Ryan wing will complain that Trump is not undermining Social Security and Medicare, as Ryan himself has long advocated. Residents of Western states are not too keen on Trump’s plan to revive the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump. But the military buildup has plenty of Republican supporters.
To put in perspective the sacrifice of so many functional, low-dollar domestic programs on the altar of more war spending, consider this: An internal Pentagon study estimates that the military wastes $125 billion per year on unnecessary bureaucracy. In other words, the Pentagon itself says it is throwing away about two and half times more taxpayer money than Trump proposes in his budget increase—an increase that will be paid for with so many painful cuts.
And unlike the federal agencies facing a meat cleaver, the Pentagon has never gotten around to meeting the Congressional requirement that it audit itself.
The Pentagon can’t account for how it spends trillions of dollars, and routinely delivers ineffective and overpriced weapons systems, Mandy Smithberger, director of the Straus Military Reform Project, points out. “Unfortunately, it appears the Pentagon is going to get more money and come up with a list of priorities and justifications after the fact,” Smithberger says.
Domestic programs don’t get to take such a lax approach. White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney defended devastating cuts to Meals on Wheels and after-school programs for kids by saying they “sound good” but don’t “show results.”
“We’re going to spend money . . . but we’re not going to spend it on programs that cannot show they actually deliver the promises that we’ve made to people.”
Unless, of course, those programs are part of the Department of Defense.
Trump Budget by the Numbers:
- Amount the United States currently spends on the Department of Defense: $587 billion
- Amount the Pentagon characterized, in an internal report, as wasteful spending on bureaucracy that ought to be eliminated: $125 billion
- Amount Trump proposes to increase spending on the Department of Defense in FY2018: $54 billion
- Specific cuts to domestic programs to help pay for the Pentagon increase, a border wall, and school vouchers:
- Cuts to Department of Agriculture (USDA): $4.7B
Includes $200 million in cuts to the Women, Infants and Children nutrition assistance program.
- Cuts to Department of Commerce: $1.4 billion
Includes $250 million in cuts to coastal research programs that help prepare communities to deal with storms and rising seas. Also includes $221 million investments to stimulate local economic growth.
- Cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency: $2.5 billion
- Cuts to the Department of Education: $9.2 billion
Includes $3.7 billion in cuts to grants for teacher training, after-school programs, and aid programs to low-income students.
- Cuts to Department of Energy: $1.7 billion
Includes $900 million in cuts to research at the nation’s universities and national laboratories.
- Cuts to the Department of Housing and Urban Development: $6.2 billion
Includes eliminating the entire $3 billion Community Development Block Grant program.
- Cuts to State Department: $10.9 billion
Includes programs focused on climate change and foreign aid.
- Cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency: $2.5 billion
Includes eliminating funding for international climate-change programs.
- Eliminates National Endowment for the Arts: $148 million
- Eliminates National Endowment for the Humanities: $148 million
- Eliminates the Institute of Museum and Library Services: $230 million
- Eliminates the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports public television and public radio: $445 million