Let the Budget Wars Begin

The President seems to be really enjoying himself on his first overseas trip as America’s commander-in-chief.  Although it is probably not most people’s idea of a dream vacation, President Trump badly needed this opportunity to escape the swamp.  You can tell that he’s enjoying himself when he’s not tweeting about the corrupt and biased mainstream media.  Believe it or not, President Trump was treated with more respect by the Saudi Arabian government than he will be by the opposition party for his entire tenure in office. 

 

When he gets back to the swamp, he is most certainly sure to face intense opposition to his domestic agenda; most notably his budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2018 titled “A New Foundation for American Greatness”. Although the start of FY 2018 is still more than four months away, liberals’ heads are already exploding at the thought of this budget passing.  Bernie Sanders has called the budget “grotesquely immoral” while Hillary Clinton has come out of the woods to say that the budget shows an “unimaginable amount of cruelty.” 

 

Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, responded to these accusations by saying “We are no longer going to measure compassion by the number of programs or the number of people on those programs.  We will measure compassion and success by the number of people we get off those programs.”  This might surprise some of my younger readers, but the United States was originally founded as a self-reliant country, not a nanny state.  The nanny state supported by the American left discourages work and instead promotes dependency.  That is exactly what the left wants because the more people that are dependent on government, the more people that vote for the Democrats.  

 

One of the purposes of this budget is to work towards balancing the budget within ten years.  Congress apparently has not gotten the memo that money does not grow on trees.  Our $20 trillion debt should not be worn as a badge of honor. The other purpose of the Trump budget is to get the economy growing at a rate of 3 percent or higher.  Democrats spent the past eight years telling us that the unimpressive growth rates were “the best that we could do.”  Taking a line from the movie “Mr. Holland’s Opus”, voters in 2016 responded by saying “Your best is not good enough”. 

 

In order for economic growth to occur, there are several steps that must be taken; many of which are included in this budget blueprint.  One of the most important steps is to lower the corporate tax rate.  As long as the United States has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world, companies have no incentives to do business here.  If companies are not doing business here, then jobs are not being created.  If job creation is not occurring, then the economy is not growing.  The budget proposal also promises to roll back burdensome regulations, which also inhibit job creation.  

 

You would think the Democrats would be thrilled that the budget includes provisions for paid parental leave as well as a major infrastructure initiative; both of which would normally not be included in a Republican budget.  You would think that Nancy Pelosi would be willing to work with President Bush on promoting those initiatives.  However, liberals will never accept this budget proposal as long as it promises to repeal Obama Care and set aside money to begin constructing the “evil, racist” border wall.  

 

Despite the fact that the left has a unique disdain for Trump, they would have reacted the same way to any budget proposal crafted by a conservative Republican.  This is because there are major disagreements between the political parties about how to spend taxpayer money. The left believes that it is the job of the Federal government to provide cradle to grave entitlements; the list of which never seems to stop growing.  The right believes that state governments are much better equipped at providing social programs to their neediest citizens and that Federal tax dollars are best spent on national security.  It is clear that these profound disagreements are not going away anytime soon.        

 

I would like to conclude by encouraging you, the reader, to ignore the spin and propaganda being peddled by the folks who got us into this mess in the first place and take a look at the budget for yourself.  Here’s the link: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BUDGET-2018-BUD/pdf/BUDGET-2018-BUD.pdf