Day 56: One Budget to Rule Them All

Today saw the release of Trump's first budget proposal. Before you go and read any of the headlines below, I implore you to look at this comic, which sums the entire document up better than any words can. All I can say is: I'm glad that this thing is dead on arrival in congress.

This thing is VICIOUS. It boosts spending to the military and homeland security, and budgets for a fucking useless wall, while tearing down essentially all domestic programs and foreign aid. Oh, and the State Department? Completely hobbled. The entire population is going to suffer as a result of this bloodbath. But then again, that's the point, isn't it? Destroy as many lives as possible, one federal agency at a time?

• Numerical details, and historical analysis.
• Complete rundown (and source for the above graphic). 
• The only thing that wins is the military. Already the most expensive military on earth by a significant margin, the most powerful military on earth by a significant margin, and basically half of discretionary spending in the government, it apparently needs a 10% boost (and a wall). Fuck off.
• If there is such a serious threat that the military needs such extra money, how about raising taxes to cover it? What's that, Republicans? I can't hear you.
• Proposed gutting of science funding (another article). NIH? Down 20%. Department of Energy? Down 20% (except for the nukes, up 10%). EPA science? Down 40%. NASA's earth sciences program? Down 5%. NOAA? Down 26%. You know what made America great after WWII? Science funding. You want to know how to kill US science? Enact these cuts.
• 19 agencies completely eliminated, including the National Endowment for Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. These are TINY on the grand scale of things, and yet so important.
• The White House budget director had this shit to say: "These cuts are compassionate [to American taxpayers]". I love this statement from the author of the article: "In light of this stellar record, increasing the rate of child homelessness to finance new weapons systems is one of “the most compassionate things we can do.”" Note that this budget is essentially revenue-neutral, meaning that it doesn't change somebody's taxes at all anyway.
• This tweet is perhaps the most apt thing of all: "From a purely semantic standpoint, cutting programs that 'failed to meet their objectives' to fund the Pentagon is just amazing"

Here's what else crossed the news today:

• Disgraced head of national security Michael Flynn has been taking money from multiple Russian companies, including ones linked to Russian intelligence. Remember Stone? He's being investigated by the FBI for having at least 16 communications with Russian hackers. This Russia story isn't going away.
• Trump continues to make ridiculous statements about being "wiretapped" by his predecessor, despite House and Senate committees reporting they've found no evidence.
• Trump met with the Irish President today, and took the opportunity to quote an "Irish" proverb. It turns out Trump stole it from a Nigerian poet.