Yesterday, the Trump administration released its budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year. Needless to say, there’s already been a lot of hype and hysteria about what it does or doesn’t do.
A casual review of the proposal shows that it contains some good news in the area of budget cuts to wasteful and unnecessary federal bureaucracies. But as is usually the case with Trump, everything good comes with something bad because these cuts are temporary; they allow the bureaucracies to stay open for business and allows for spending to rise again in the future.
So much for the campaign promise to shut down agencies like the EPA and Department of Education.
The Trump spin machine has quickly pointed out that his budget contains an alleged $3.6 Trillion in budget cuts over the next decade. Besides the fact that only in Washington can you increase spending and call it a budget cut, the reality is that what we get is expensive big-government programs that will only get more expensive in the future. For example, Trump’s budget includes Ivanka’s Paid Family Leave entitlement at a cost of $28 Billion.
And speaking of entitlements, Trump’s budget does absolutely nothing about Social Security and Medicare programs which currently total over $42 trillion in unfunded liabilities. This amount is only a portion of the over $106 trillion in total unfunded liabilities when you add federal employee and veteran benefits along with publicly held federal debt.
Visit the Debt Clock to see the details . . . if you dare.
Part of the solution being proposed to feed this obese federal government pig continues to be the latest budget shell game from the desk of Paul Ryan—the Border Adjustment Tax (BAT). Calling it the “smart way to go,” Ryan is pushing hard for the $1 Trillion in new tax revenue that he claims will help American workers and job creators. And as we all know, nothing helps workers and job creators like higher taxes.
Kind of reminds me of Reagan’s nine most terrifying words in the English language: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
Trump laid the groundwork for tax-and-spend Washington to become taxier-and-spendier in his address to Congress several months ago, so his non-conservative big-government budget comes as no surprise. And Paul Ryan has never met a tax he didn’t like—see the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013—so his latest government scheme involving legalized government theft is standard operating procedure for the House Speaker.
Together, Trump and the GOP Establishment have broken their campaign promise to get the budget under control. And in the end, the result for America will be more government, a loss of liberty, and an unbearable burden on our children.
David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative, your source for opinion that’s politically incorrect and always “right.” His articles are also featured on RedState.com.
His daily radio commentary is nationally syndicated via Salem Radio Network and can be heard on stations across America.
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