Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, exploded with rage after Trump released a budget that slashes trillions of dollars from Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security disability after he gave a massive tax cut to the wealthy and corporations.
In a statement provided to PoliticusUSA, Sen. Sanders said:
The Trump budget introduced today is morally bankrupt and bad economic policy. During the campaign, Donald Trump promised that the wealthy would not get a tax break and that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid would not be cut. But his budget does the exact opposite of what Trump pledged to the American people. Trump’s budget pays for his huge tax breaks for the rich and large corporations by slashing Medicaid by $1.3 trillion, cutting Medicare by $554 billion and slicing $10 billion from the Social Security Disability Insurance Program. This budget is nothing less than a major transfer of wealth from the middle class and working families to the top 1 percent and large corporations.
Meanwhile, at a time when the U.S. spends more on defense than the next 12 countries combined, the Trump budget calls for a massive increase in military spending paid for by cutting $57 billion in domestic spending from the bipartisan budget agreement that was signed into law just a few days ago.
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This is a budget for the billionaire class, for Wall Street, for corporate CEOs, for defense contractors and for the wealthiest people in this country. It must be defeated.
The Trump budget is dead on arrival
Sanders knows that the Trump budget is dead on arrival in Congress. This budget has a zero percent chance of ever passing, but it is useful for showing Trump’s true intentions. Donald Trump was never going to protect Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. Privatization of the programs has always been the goal. The massive cuts to the social safety net are the first steps to privatizing them.
The budget reveals that Trump is going to spend his time in office upwardly redistributing wealth and resources to those who need them the least.
Trump’s budget is doomed, but his priority of harming poor people will be acting on by Paul Ryan and House Republicans this year. It’s isn’t a budget that must be defeated. It’s an ideology of greed that must be stopped.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
