MGB: Budgets are political documents and the more extreme submissions are dead on arrival. The military has had a hard time of it, but so has the rest of the government. The sequester and budget caps were designed because the system could not make hard choices to pay for allowing the Bush Tax Cuts for the bottom 98% of families to be permanent. It worked.
Our main tool of industrial policy is military procurement, so as industrial policy this spending makes sense, especially to the families of military contractors who are largely Trump’s people. The State Department cuts are explained by Rachel Maddow as a reward to Putin for his support. If she is right, this borders on treason. Cuts to foreign aid, Labor and EPA are standard for someone who reads Brietbart News and listens to FoxNews. (NIH too). More troubling are his personnel choices for these agencies. Sadly, factions in the Congress agree, however saner heads should prevail.
Trump believes that if we give the rich still more money, they will create jobs. This is wrong, but being wrong is the coin of the realm in Trumpville. Giving consumers money creates jobs, which means no tax cuts for the rich and much more spending, including on Defense.
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