#82) Budget Woes

May 2, 2017

Dear Mr. President,

One's budget is often an expression of one's priorities.  For instance, in my household budget we spend a ridiculous amount of money on food and motorcycles…so our priorities are pretty clear.  Let's look at your budget…

You want to increase military spending by $54 billion.  You propose to partially offset this increase by cutting non-defense, discretionary programs such as the EPA, the State Department, and the Agriculture Department (to name just a few).  That word 'partially' is very important because your budget is not balanced and the savings we will see from your cuts do NOT offset the increased spending.  That's just one problem, and here's another: your budget does nothing to tackle the long-term growth of our overall debt. Nothing gets paid down and right now we owe about $20 trillion. You did mention in your campaign speeches – several hundred times - that you would solve our debt crisis.  But this budget seems to just make it worse.

Missing from your budget, I noticed, is the $1 trillion that you promised on the campaign trail for infrastructure improvement.  This was especially disappointing to see because repairing America's sagging infrastructure was one of the very few things that both parties could agree on.  But the funding for that is not even in your budget.

Although you have this rabid base of supporters for whom you can do no wrong, you don't really have the support of the Republican party which controls the Congress right now. Oh yeah, AND they control the nation's purse strings.  How ironic.  You find your hands tied, again; first by that pesky judiciary branch, and now by your own party.  You just can't get a break.

Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY), former Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee said,                    "While we have a responsibility to reduce our federal deficit, I am disappointed

            that many of the reductions and eliminations proposed in the president's skinny

budget are draconian, careless, and counterproductive.  We will certainly

            review this budget proposal, but Congress ultimately has the power of the purse."

So I'm thinking that your budget isn't going to get too far. I guess not understanding how the government is financed is just another one of those things you didn't know about.  It's hard to be a really effective "deal maker" when you don't even understand the rules of the game.

Sincerely,

Amy Beaton

P.S.  There's a funny meme going around that says, "If Donald Trump wants to pay for The Wall he should start a Go Fund Me page and all of his supporters can contribute."  Seems fair to me.