By Avishek Deb

On 12th February 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump proposed the second budget of his tenure, a $4.4 trillion plan which proffers steep cuts in domestic programs and increases in military spending. This budget could result in increasing the federal deficit by $984 billion next year, thus signalling a departure from the Republican policy of balanced budgets. Republicans have always favoured creating incentives for corporations in order to provide jobs and improve the economy rather than giving freebies directly to citizens. Thus, their disdain for socialist schemes such as Medicare is understandable. However, cuts in these welfare programmes to justify spending in defence is a blatant disregard for their citizen’s healthcare and wellbeing. This spending spree may have been motivated by a recent law which increases the spending cap of the federal government to $300 billion over 2 years.

Departments getting increased funding include Commerce (+6%), Homeland Security (+12%) and Defence (+14%). Departments getting the short end of the stick include Environmental Protection Agency (-25%), State Department (-23%), Transportation (-18%), Agriculture (-15%), Labour (-10%) as well as Education (-5%).

Some of the key proposed changes are as follows.

Agriculture and defence

The budget reduces funding for the Food Stamps Program (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program- SNAP) by $17.2 billion in 2019 and $213.5 billion over the next 10 years, thus affecting millions of low-income individuals and families. Also, instead of going to a grocery store to purchase food, SNAP recipients would be delivered with a package of “nutritious” American-grown food. Other proposals include cutting of $136 million in funding for conservation programs, eliminating the Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant Program, as well as discontinuing the $166 million funding for Food for Progress program.

The budget sets aside $24 billion to modernise the nuclear arsenal and infrastructure. It also gives the military the green signal to add up to 16,400 troops. Trump’s vision of foreign policy can be seen from the fact that he proposes to focus on spending more on countering Russia and China rather than fighting wars in places like Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

Energy

The budget slashes 66% of the funding for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, which studies advanced transportation, wind and solar energy while eliminating the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy altogether. More than 30 programs that are focused on protection of beaches, climate change research, environmental education, and reducing radon linked health hazards would be terminated. One of the reasons cited is that costs associated with these programs are redundant. Notwithstanding these cuts, the department’s National Nuclear Security Administration will receive a 17.5% boost, making it nearly half of the entire department’s budget.

Health, human services, and homeland security

The budget proposes to add $5 billion to combat the opioid epidemic, which is not enough, according to experts. Medicaid will be revamped from an entitlement system into a system of capped federal payments that save states from federal eligibility and benefits rules. This will affect providers of healthcare such as drug makers and hospitals. It also suggests putting emphasis on working in order for poor people to be able to receive federal assistance.

The budget proposal axes a grant program for states used to support child care assistance. Trump also wants to end the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps with the heating bills of the elderly and low-income people. In addition, the budget proposes repealing the expansion of Medicaid and limiting the amount of money state governments receive for the jointly-funded health care program.

The budget allocates $1.6 billion for the construction of 65 miles of his infamous border wall in South Texas while adding $2.8 billion to increase immigration detention to 52,000 beds per day.

Observations

So, this budget adversely affects low-income people more severely than high-income people. Experts believe that money saved from cutting entitlement programs is too little to spend on anything useful and could be avoided. Even though there are no provisions in the budget that directly affects Indians aspiring to work or study in the United States, cuts in funding of Department of Labour will likely hamper hiring of non-Americans.

Featured Image Source: Pixabay

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