The National Endowment for the Arts, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Meals on Wheels, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), after-school programs … and that’s just scratching the surface of the pile of useless shit the government is wasting money on when they should be using those funds to expand the military.
That’s right, the military. The United States already has the most powerful military forces in the world. In fact, the U.S. government spends more money on the military than any other department. Out of the $1.5 trillion budget proposed for 2016, 54 percent was allocated to the military, which equaled $625.2 billion, while the Department of Education received 6 percent and Food & Agriculture received a meager 1 percent.
Now, it is true that the military is enormously expensive due to the ever-increasing demands for scientific and technological advancement (especially with competitors such as Russia and China to contend with), so it makes sense that it would require more funding than, say, Veteran’s Benefits, which receives 6 percent of federal funding, or Social Security, Unemployment & Labor, which receives 3 percent of federal funding.
But does it really require over half of the government’s budget?
Apparently the answer is no; it requires much more.
President Trump just released a 2018 budget proposal in which all but three departments are expected to see major cuts in funding. Only Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, and Defense will see increases in federal funding. Defense is expected to receive a 10 percent increase in funding. A 10 percent increase.
Homeland Security is to receive a 7 percent increase, and Veterans Affairs a 6 percent increase.
On the other hand, everything else will receive cuts. The proposed decrease for the EPA is 31 percent … 31 percent. The Justice department will be cut by 20 percent. Education will be cut by 14 percent. State and other development programs will be cut by 29 percent.
Because, you know, the arts and education and the environment and the entire justice system fall into the “impractical, frivolous, unnecessary, useless shit” category.
But what makes this even more astounding is that fact that by proposing these cuts, Trump is going back on several promises he carelessly made during his campaign (yeah I know, it was just to win votes, but he has to learn that in the real world, we are held accountable to what we say, especially if we are in charge of the country with the world’s largest military and economy).
Take the justice department for instance. Who was the candidate constantly blathering on about “law and order” and how someone needs to fix the horrendous state of crime in this country? Oh right … it was Donald Trump.
And what about his vow to make college more affordable? Guess what Donald – cutting education funding isn’t going to make it cost less. That’s just not how it works.
On the other hand, some promises he has stayed true to include (to put it in simplest terms) attacking the environment, destroying education, and increasing the poverty gap.
So while schools suffer, homebound citizens starve, fossil fuels poison the environment, discrimination and racism intensify, international relations dissolve and the justice system goes to hell, at least we can take comfort in knowing that our government is spending money on what really counts.
