“Don’t tell me your value, show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.” That quote comes from Joe Biden. I have used it several times in the past in my writing because it is so true. The Trump administration is about to officially send its budget request to Capitol Hill. Keep Amtrak Joe’s words of profound wisdom in mind as we explore together.

The budget, entitled “A New Foundation for American Greatness” cuts $3.6 trillion dollars from the social safety net over the next ten years. Victims include Medicaid, CHIPs (Children’s Health Insurance Program), SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – commonly referred to as food stamps), Planned Parenthood, SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance) and SSI (Supplemental Security Income – a program that benefits the poorest and the disabled).

I’m not going to get into a lot of the dollar amounts and percentages these programs are being cut. Many other outlets have done a great job of covering that. For the next paragraph or two I want to concentrate on the economic idiocy and governmental deception of them.

This is a reverse Robin Hood plan. It takes money from the poorest (often including the working poor) and gives significant tax relief to ultra-wealthy. That is not going to help the economy! A person of modest means will quickly spend additional marginal income, and spend it locally or at least domestically. One of the elements that fuels economic growth is the velocity at which money moves. Your spending is my income and vice versa. Give a “one per center” money they don’t need and they will often offshore it. Poor and working class people don’t need a passport to visit their money; they often couldn’t afford the trip in the first place.

Over the decades I have made many friends in state or local governments. One of their biggest frustrations has been dealing with unfunded or severely underfunded mandates. The level of government above them mandated that they must do X without sending down adequate funding. Therefore they end up having to be the villains who either have to raise taxes or cut other services. Trump’s budget proposes to send many functions to the states in the form of block grants. At the same time it is cutting federal funding for those functions. You connect the dots on that one.

In addition to the cruelty of this program (I didn’t realize that was one of the values that made America great) it is based on an unreasonable expectation. The budget projects GDP growth of 3%. In recent years that growth has been closer to 1.7%. Trump somehow magically expects to basically double that.

Trump’s economic programs have all been loaded with tax breaks for the very wealthy (like Donald Trump and his family) and plenty of deregulation to make it easier for them to profit while leaving the eventual legacy costs to society; the typical Republican policy of privatizing the profits and socializing the losses.

Don Trump is running an organized criminal enterprise whose primary goal is the enrichment of the Trump family and a handful of select friends. By the way, whatever happened to the approximately $50 million left over from the relatively sparsely attended inauguration?  Just a couple of bucks in the slush fund I guess.

Unfettered and unreasonable greed is the primary value of the Trump administration!

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