The Trump budget was stomach turning for a populist.

Even though Mick Mulvaney’s budget is a dead letter on Capitol Hill, we have seen how it proposes to cut Medicare, Medicaid, the student loan forgiveness program and food stamps. As “welfare,” it also proposes to cut heating assistance for poor and elderly people:

“PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The Trump administration is once again calling for the complete elimination of a heating assistance program that helps to keep the homes of low-income families warm. And once again, program supporters are vowing to fight it. The administration is using the same arguments from a year ago when it tried to abolish the program, saying it’s rife with fraud and that no one would be left freezing if the program goes away. “These arguments are very misleading and wrong,” said Mark Wolfe, director of the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association in Washington, D.C. The program, known as LIHEAP — Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program — helps families pay their heating bills primarily in the form of a grant that’s sent directly to utility companies or heating fuel vendors. …”

These budget cuts are necessary to pay for the Trump tax cuts, the $165 billion hike in military spending and a proposed $200 million increase in foreign aid for Israel:

“Israel will receive $3.3 billion in funding from the United States under President Donald Trump’s Fiscal Year 2019 budget request for the Department of State, a US official announced at a department briefing on Monday. Hari Sastry, the Director of the Office of US Foreign Assistance Resources at the State Department, noted that Israel will receive a bump of $200 million in aid under the proposed budget. … “[For] Israel, the total is $3.3 billion, which is a $200 million increase from the previous year and reflects the newly signed 10-year MOU [memorandum of understanding],” he said. In September, the US and Israel signed a 10-year MOU providing $38 billion in defense aid to Israel through 2028. … The budget request explains the $3.3 billion request provides “assistance to bolster Israel’s capacity to defend itself and maintain its qualitative military edge.” …

Your chances of hearing about this anywhere else but OD are about zero. The Trump administration wants to cut social programs that help poor Whites … in order to hike welfare for Israel. By all means though, keep telling us that he is so based and we should remain invested in this.

Notice how foreign aid for Israel isn’t welfare, the Pentagon isn’t on welfare, rewriting the tax code for multinational corporations isn’t welfare. This orgy of government spending is only “welfare” when it benefits someone who might actually need government assistance.

Note: As I have explained, some of these programs actually help the White working class. These are tangible benefits derived from government policies. In contrast, Donald Trump hasn’t built a foot of his notional Mexican border wall which was the reason we voted for him.