Donald Trump wants you to wave goodbye to job training programs for senior citizens and disadvantaged youth. Those programs are explicitly targeted in the $2.5 billion in cuts to the Labor Department, though $2.5 billion leaves a heckuva lot of room for further cuts.
The White House’s proposal would eliminate the Senior Community Service Employment Program, which helps low-income job seekers age 55 and older find work by pairing them with nonprofit organizations and public agencies. The administration estimates that it would save $434 million by cutting the program, which aims to help people land permanent jobs.
In the budget proposal, the administration criticized the program as “ineffective” and said that one-third of the participants do not finish. The administration said that only half of those who complete the program end up finding jobs that are not subsidized.
And it would be unthinkable to fine-tune the program so more people finish and find jobs! But who are we kidding? That $434 million could be used to fund a small fraction of an aircraft carrier, because the U.S. only has nearly as many as every other country in the world combined.