Trump's 2021 budget declaration of war: Democrats

US Democratic lawmakers have expressed strong dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump's 2021 budget, describing it as a “declaration of war on the American people."  

Experts believe the 2021 budget released on Monday by the Trump administration allocated funds to grow the US military industrial complex while cutting the budgets allocated to health and welfare.

Trump to propose $4.8 trillion US budget with large cuts in safety nets: WSJ

US President Donald Trump will reportedly release a $4.8 trillion budget on Monday that will propose steep cuts to social safety net programs and foreign aid.

The new budget will raise military spending by 0.3% to $740.5 billion for the fiscal year 2021

Given Trump's belief in US military superiority, the new budget aims to give America the upper-hand in the arms race with Russia and China.

The numbers proposed in the budget, indicate that Trump aims to gain global superiority by restoring nuclear weapons to a central role in America's military strategy.

The Trump administration, in the 2021 budget, revealed for the first time that it intended to create a new kind of submarine-launched nuclear warhead and increase the budget allocated to the National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains the nuclear stockpile and develops new nuclear warheads.

There is $15.5 billion allocated to the development and deployment of new space assets for the new Space Force.

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There is also a significant budget allocated to the development of intermediate-range missiles that had been prohibited by the Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty with Russia (INF) Trump cancelled last year.

The new budget proposes billion of dollars for developing hypersonic weapons, which are particularly hard to fight against because they follow an unpredictable path to a target, at tremendous speed.

Trump's budget proposal calls for an increase to the Homeland Security funding, and $2 billion in additional funding for his much disputed wall across the Mexican border.

In the meantime, the new budget aims to cut on the nation's health and welfare programs, as well as foreign aid.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the White House proposes to slash spending by $4.4 trillion over 10 years.

The Trump budget targets $2 trillion in savings from mandatory spending programs, the newspaper said.

That includes $130 billion from changes to Medicare prescription-drug pricing, $292 billion from cuts in safety net programs - such as work requirements for Medicaid and food stamps - and $70 billion from tightening eligibility rules for federal disability benefits, the Journal reported.

Congress has rejected most of Trump's previous budget proposals, and Democratic lawmakers wasted no time in expressing their strong dissatisfaction with the new budget plan.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) slammed Trump’s proposed budget on Tuesday, describing it a "declaration of war on the American dream."

"President Trump's budget is reckless, regressive and retrograde and is a declaration of war on the American Dream," Jeffries, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, told reporters."Once again, the president has shown the American people he's all about elevating the wealthy, the well-off and the well-connected and everybody else is left to fend for themselves."

Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), the caucus's co-chair, who said Trump's budget contradicts what he said last week during his annual State of the Union address.

In his speech, Trump said "we will always protect your Medicare and we will always protect you Social Security."

Clark pointed out that Trump's proposed $4.8 trillion budget would slash $24 million from Social Security, $500 billion from Medicare and $900 billion from Medicaid over the next decade.

The congresswoman echoed Jeffries: "Budgets are always a roadmap of our values and this one clearly shows that this president and his administration's value remain clearly with those who have already achieved great wealth and power."

"This destructive and irrational President is giving us a destructive and irrational budget," House Budget Chairman John Yarmuth, D-Ky., said. "He is proposing deep cuts to critical programs that help American families and protect our economic and national security. Furthermore, the budget reportedly includes destructive changes to Medicaid, SNAP, Social Security and other assistance programs that help Americans make ends meet – all while extending his tax cuts for millionaires."

Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., who sits on the Appropriations Committee, also slammed Trump for falsely claiming that he would not seek to cut vital health programs.

"These cuts are a dangerous assault on American families," he tweeted. "With this budget, his promises not to cut Medicare and Medicaid lie shattered on the ground."

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the budget cuts show that Trump's State of the Union vows were a "lie to the American people."

"By proposing severe cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, President Trump's latest budget is simply a continuation of his war to rip away health care from millions," he said.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., added that the proposal shows "just how little he values the good health, financial security, and well-being of hard-working American families."

"Year after year, President Trump's budgets have sought to inflict devastating cuts to critical lifelines that millions of Americans rely on," Pelosi said. "Less than a week after promising to protect families' healthcare in his State of the Union address, the president is now brazenly inflicting savage multi-billion-dollar cuts to Medicare and Medicaid — at the same time that he is fighting in federal court to destroy protections for people with pre-existing conditions and dismantle every other protection and benefit of the Affordable Care Act."

In the meantime the Trump administration is faced with a trillion-dollar deficit which contradicts Trump’s campaign promise in 2016 that even with his proposed tax cuts, he would be able to eliminate future deficits with cuts in spending and growth in revenues that would result from a stronger economy.

US budget deficit tops $1 trillion in 2019

The US government budget deficit surpasses $1 trillion, marking the first time the country has crossed that threshold since 2012.

Despite the cuts in health, welfare and social security, Trump's proposed budget plan fails to eliminate the budget deficit over the next decade.

In contrast, Trump's budget deficit has only grown despite vowing to eliminate it.

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