March 17, 2017
Dear Mr. President,
So you submitted your first official budget as POTUS,
congratulations on that. There are two
main problems with it however; one is that it cuts critical social programs,
and the other is that it cuts programs that promote economic growth. These two things are way too big to address
in one letter so for today I'm just going to tackle the limit setting of
economic growth. Let's save the social
programs for tomorrow (gives you something to look forward to :)
Basically, this budget will not help to "make America
great again" because it cuts proven programs that directly promote economic
prosperity and growth. Here are just a
few:
*National Institutes of Health – a center
for world class medical research
*Community Development Block Grants - one of the longest running and
most successful programs of HUD, funds community and infrastructure
development, economic development and job creation activities (I could write a
book about all the amazing things that have been done with CDBG funds over the
past 43 years.)
*Advanced Research Projects Agency – this is the group that helped
develop the Internet. You're budget
would completely eliminate it.
*Appalachian Regional Commission – serves 420 counties in 13 states
boosting income, education, health care, and transportation in areas that traditionally
lag behind the rest of the country (they have a nice website too).
*Dept. of Energy – this budget would slice their research and
computing budget in half. This program
controls the exascale computing efforts for the entire federal government.
Basically exascale computing is a billion billion calculations per
second. You should really Google
this. This is very important.
*Environmental Protection Agency – this agency is everyone's favorite
punching bag because it protects endangered owls. But guess what else it does…it
keeps our air, water and soil clean! If
you don't think this is important science than you should meet with anyone who has been
poisoned by DDT, lead, or mercury. Go
visit Beijing on a hot summer day and feel the effects of pollution and fog so
thick that it blocks sunlight and sickens people on contact. Go spend some time with the families of
Flint, Michigan. It would be good for
you.
You have promised over and over (and over and over) again to
create jobs, create economic growth, and make America great again. But when you cut funding to the very basic
scientific research and development that MADE America great, you undermine
everything that you seem to stand for!
Right now America is a global innovation leader but your short sighted
cuts would end that.
"America's lead in science and technology was built on
the fact that in the 1960s, the US government alone invested more in research
and development than the rest of the world combined, business and government. The Trump budget throws this great legacy
away."
-Robert
Atkinson, pres. Information Technology and
Innovation
Foundation
If you want to make good on your campaign promises and
really do some good for the American people, don't cut the programs that have
been
proven to promote economic growth.
It's just common sense, isn't it?
Sincerely,
Amy Beaton
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