Breakdown of Trump's 2018 Budget Proposal 

Another simple breakdown link.

We're all gonna die (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

^Lol.

Literally disgusting.

>Discontinues funding for all international climate-change programs
>Eliminates more than 50 programs and 3,200 jobs in the EPA [yay, public servants out of work]
>Cuts $102 million of funding from NASA Earth science, terminating four missions aimed at understanding climate-change [yay, highly-skilled scientists out of work]
>Literally eliminates all arts and culture funding, which made up 0.016% of the budget [such cost savings, such fixing of budget deficit. Bye bye orchestras, libraries, museums. I suppose its a good investment for the future? An uncultured and ignorant populace are more likely to vote for nationalist authoritarians, after all]
>Eliminates Chemical Safety Board [yeah lol who the fuck needs to investigate and prevent industrial chemical accidents anyway]
>Eliminates Legal Services Corporation [Getting rid of the biggest legal aid provider in the country?? Absolute, absolute, absolute fuckery. But his Muslim ban 2.0 just got struck down, so I suppose having a fair judicial system is irking him]
>Eliminates Meals on Wheels program
>Eliminates rural development, aid and subsidies programs [just another example of how the people that voted for him actually voted to fuck themselves over]
>Cutting the biggest institute of science/medical research by $6 billion [both parties have previously been bipartisan in regarding this as essential to national prosperity, development and security? Yeah, then Trump]
>Cuts a shitload of other programs and causing even more people lose their jobs
...
>Buys F-35 Joint Strike Fighters more rapidly

Looks like the country has its priorities in order.

Lol @ "Making America Great Again" by eliminating everything that makes America great.

Right though, as I was reading this I was just going, "well it's not like we need xyz anyways." Like we don't need to research how to fix or present clumsy change. *shrug*

(Will edit this comment with more specifics)

Urgh.

Also, "eliminates the $445 million for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting"? Does that mean the PBS is getting axed? I don't know how things are in America, but here the public broadcasting network is literally the only free channel that's not absolute rubbish. Istg I would fly to the capital and egg Parliament House if they got rid of it.

*Forgot to actually edit the comment*

See the PBS one pisses me off too. Like people need that? So many parents are too busy with work (gotta pay off those ridiculously high college and medical bills while simultaneously keeping a roof over the heads of your family and food on their table) to teach them things. So when the kid isn't in school the parent can just pop on PBS and at least have some kind of teaching going for them. Not only that but it'll keep the kids entertained too. And like you said, it's like one of the only not-awful free TV channel.

These first two really kill me. Like we absolutely need to step it up in terms of keeping this planet alive. This winter in February (usually the coldest moth with feet of snow where I live) saw only one snowfall that stuck on the ground. And there were 3 days in which it was 70 degrees. Now in March (usually beautiful out) we're seeing weather at around 15-20 degrees. Something needs to change. And by change I mean if anything America should up the funding for climate change prevention research. All of these poor birds that migrated back home and are freezing their feathery asses off.

Hand in hand we need, need, need more EPA spending. We need to get these lakes and oceans cleaned and keep them that way. We need to keep endangered species protected. I cannot even fathom why he tried (did?) pass a bill that voids the endangered species list. This list protected many species and I don't see what overriding it would accomplish other than killing various animals including my precious bat babies.
Plus America could use those 3,200 jobs. Like Jesus Christ. Where is the logic in cutting all of this? Why would you eliminate so many science jobs and take away from brilliant people who actually deserve the positions they are in.
NASA? Who needs that right lol? We don't need to learn about other planes or what's out there.

This one also pisses me off big time. I am a huge fan of the arts, English, Music, Language, Painting. This is super important to culture and history. Art makes history it bridges eras to each other. It connects people. We should aim to fund learning second and even third languages. We should appreciate musicians and sculptors and authors. I swear we are so math/science/technology driven these days that there's no room for the old-school stuff. I'm not saying appreciating the above is bad--it isn't. But I do feel like right-brained people like myself get the short end of the stick, especially in the jobs department. Cursive and reading-comprehension are nearly lost arts. And chopping an already stick thin budget is going to make this so much worse.
Shit, libraries are one of the few actually free places. You can read and learn for free! You can have a nice warm place to stay for a little bit for free. Museums, theaters, etc these are both very fun and very enlightening activities. Why take that?
It's like they want a less cultured America.

This one is like, yeah you pretty much summed it up; who the fuck needs chemical safety lol? It's not like they're cutting the EPA (which would mean that we'd need it more) too.

Also with this. Like who needs a fair court system? I don't even think I need to explain why taking away court rights from people is bad.

Yeah, I mean screw old people amirite? But for real this program is so useful to folks who would otherwise be going hungry because they have trouble providing for themselves due to age.

This one goes hand in hand with the NASA and science cuts. Why would you take away from a perfectly useful science research institute when you can, idk, not do that? I think that it goes without saying that we can always use medical research. How else are we going to find cures and vaccines.

And yeah this dude's supposed to be the 'jobs' president. He's gonna be losing people jobs.

And where's it all going? Surprise, surprise, the military. Sure we do need some spending on military for security and defense purposes. But the crazy thing is that they're off buying tanks and shit and they don't even need 'em! Like other equipment is requested but let's just get more tanks to blow shit up. For real they spend millions on tanks and even the Pentagon is like, "bro???" link

Literally all of these cuts are just awful ideas.
I full admit that I was wrong about Hilary being just as bad. I did that thing where I was like 'oh it can't be any worse than it already is' and I take full responsibility for that. >.> *Hands up* I surrender, I was wrong, I underestimated how bad it could get. I truly thought it was just people fear-mongering.

Yep our public broadcaster is really important for children’s education too – which in turn has been shown to be important for development and the socialisation process. And idk about there, but here it is the only non-biased news outlet because it is legally obliged to be. All the others are sensationalist crap, even the pay ones (which I don’t have coz I only watch ABC lol). It would be so, so bad to lose it.

Cutting climate change research and prevention kills me so much inside. It is possibly one of the worst things they could do. At a time like this? At a time when we should be implemented massive measures in the OTHER direction? Basically what makes me hate him the most. Also, I find it funny that the people denying climate change are also those that hate migration – have fun with the mass migration events you’re setting up rn.

My city is having scarily extreme weather too 0_o Our autumn right now is literally hotter than our normal summer. It has been 24°C - 35°C (75F – 95F) for 2 weeks straight. It is nearly April. We’ve had the hottest March nights ever recorded. We are literally sitting right in the midst of massive change. Birds freezing their asses off there, coral reefs dying at a rapid rate here (making things even worse because they will no longer act as a carbon dioxide sink --> vicious positive feedback loop).

2016 was both the hottest year on record, and the year that America elected a climate change denier to the White House. How does that even compute???

Thank you for appreciating the shittiness of this situation.

EPA gets in the way of corporations polluting rivers and ruining land without consequence. It must be gutted.

I’d be ropable at the cuts to arts, music, culture too. They get so little but contribute so much in return. The great thing about literature etc is that they give us a better understanding of humanity. They are incredibly important in exploring and shedding light on the human condition. Studies have actually concluded that people who are more exposed to the arts are more understanding, more empathetic, more able to view the world from someone else’s perspective. Maybe I’m reading too much into things, but I think they DO want a less cultured America - the humanities are a threat to demagogues. At the very least, people like Trump appreciate none of these things. Remember when the Hamilton cast made a speech to Pence after the show ended? Trump’s response was something along the lines of “actors are only there for entertainment, how dare they involve themselves in these things, they should apologise”. That’s what he thinks the arts are. Mindless entertainment. Nothing to do with gaining insights, exploring complexities, providing nuance, making sense of the world.

Cuts to legal aid piss me off beyond belief. Not quite as much as the science cuts though. The NIH is one of the biggest biomedical research organisations in the world and is getting cut by $6 billion (all outlined in a document ironically entitled “America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again”). Yeah, like you said, who needs protection against disease, prosperity/development, and betterment of humankind anyway?? And who cares about the 300,000 researchers it supports?

“Jobs president” lol.

>“Pentagon Tells Congress to Stop Buying Equipment it Doesn't Need” Holy crap xD xD xD

Yeah also 120 retired US generals politely told him that gutting diplomacy to fund more ‘plosions is a terrible defence strategy.

Re the last bit - respect for saying that, most people wouldn’t. I think everyone underestimated how much he’d screw things over. I mean it also easily could’ve gone the other way and I’d be sitting her ashamedly like “I overreacted”. There was no way of knowing, he’s completely unpredictable with no rhyme or reason to his decisions.

Like we need to be socialized anyways right. Honestly I just don't trust political news anymore; it's either too far left or too far right.

I agree, climate change research is one of the last things that should be cut. We absolutely need it. For real though, this really is one of the worst times to do it; we are in such deep shit in terms of environmental issues. I honestly don't see how people can even deny it anymore. Especially with places like the Maldives that are begging the world to prevent further damage.

And then there are our two examples. Obviously we've got a problem if places are hitting unusual record highs and lows. And as you said, reefs around the world are dying off and along with them entire species.

I know right, it astounds me.

No problem man. It's pretty hard not to.

Anything that makes it hard for big corporations to earn dollar is bad right?

Arts are so underappreciated these days. People act like we don't even need them. But we do. As you mentioned, the arts are the main way of revealing the nature of society at the time. How do historians figure out things about the past? They read, they look at paintings, they listen to the popular music. That doesn't surprise me to hear. I actually googled why I get obsessed with characters; it's actually very interesting. There's a connection to empathy there; link Not exactly a reliable source but it's a cool theory. I would say that it is more than safe to connect compassion and ones ability to relate to other humans to ones reading skill. Reading is all about putting yourself in someone else's mind and in turn it exercises that part of the brain in the same way that learning a language does. Which is another thing the arts are needed for; we should fund learning new languages. Honestly they probably want a less cultured America for that very reason. I don't know all too much about that actually. I've hard of it though. It's sad though that he doesn't seem to recognize the significance that the arts have. Theater and literature help teach about the world and shed light on issues and goings on of the time they are in. Satire shows like South Park and Simpsons are all about that. Huck Fin.

Honestly, we're finally getting to a technological point where we can find new cures. And now that we're getting to the able-to point, that research is going to be put on standstill at best.

Like if the people you are buying the shit for are telling you to stop, then you need to get your shit together.

I feel like there's just so much hate from both sides that everyone either underreacts or overreacts. Like I thought that it was just fear-mongering from the left. And a lot of people probably think that the right is down playing everything. Like you said; it could have been the other way around. And it kind of sucks that it wasn't; I wish it wasn't as bad as it seems like it is right now. It really sucks. And the media skewing everything out of proportion doesn't help, you can hardly tell who is telling the truth and who isn't.

Sorry if that last bit wasn't as solid as the first parts, I'm watching Orange Is The New Black while typing this lol.