President Trump is just as obsessed with building shiny new warships and missiles as he is with building tacky buildings with his name on it.
Trump announced that he will be increasing the defense budget by $54 billion, nearly a 10 percent increase in spending.
One of the ways Trump described his increased bloating of the U.S. military is “historic” and a means of “peace through strength.” But in fulfilling his campaign promises of a “beautiful” and “very great military,” he will be destroying other fundamental government programs like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), just as he has been ruining the New York Skyline for the past 30 years.
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According to Fox News, the Trump administration has called for a slash in spending in programs that address climate change and improve water and air quality while eliminating thousands of jobs in the agency.
According to a draft of the EPA’s budget proposal that was obtained by the Associated Press, the agencies funding would be reduced by 25 percent and about 20 percent of the agency’s staff would be cut.
We know that Trump appointed Scott Pruitt, a former state attorney, as the head of the EPA. He is a man who has been highly critical of the organization he now runs and has questioned human activity’s role in climate change. The Trump administration is clearly setting up the EPA to be dismantled for his militaristic endeavors.
Trump has also left the state department in the dust by proposing to cut the department’s spending by 37 percent. The proposal faced bipartisan resistance in Congress and the Republican Party, and Republican Senator of South Carolina Lindsey Graham said, “This budget destroys soft power, it puts our diplomats at risk and it’s going nowhere.” It’s awfully ironic that Trump, somebody who has been critical of the government’s handling of incidents like Benghazi, would put the department further in the dark by cutting their funding.
It is obvious the Trump administration does not care about the EPA and has been setting the agency up to be dismantled for other new, more obnoxious government spending.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said that the proposed budget cut “shows the Trump administration doesn’t hold the same American values for clean air, clean water and healthy land as the vast majority of it’s citizens.”
Marc Apesos can be contacted at mapesos@kscequinox.com
