Trump and Bannon is a marriage made in Hell, assuming the Devil has matrimonial power. Trump just wants his damn wall and loves the idea of rattling a bigger saber than Putin. He doesn’t know or care that the United States currently has by far the biggest baddest military in the world. He also doesn’t realize that it will take years to build the impressive hardware he wants to show off. (I doubt anybody told him about the construction delays that beset the building of the still in dry dock aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford which he toured.)
Bannon probably doesn’t care about the wall, and must know that we already have all the military might we need. The fact that in order to pay for these Trump’s steroidal daydreams massive cuts will be necessary for other programs fit his own agenda perfectly.
Bannon is a white nationalist who must begrudgingly accept that America is hardly a white country despite the fact what most of Trump voters were of the fair skinned variety. I hazard a guess that the president he admires the most is Andrew Johnson and thinks he got a raw deal what with the impeachment and all.
Bannon’s view of the needy here and around the world is “let them eat cake.”
From Politico, here’s a summary of the some of the major cuts in the Bannon budget"
- State Department: cut by 28 percent
- Eliminate some domestic programs, such as the National Endowment for the Arts, the United States Institute of Peace, the Chemical Safety Board, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports PBS and NPR entirely.
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Global Climate Change Initiative cut $250 million.
- Department of Housing and Urban Development, cut $3 billion from Community Development Block Grant that funds anti-poverty programs nationwide.
- The Department of Interior’s budget cut 12 percent, HUD’s budget by 13.2 percent
- Department of Education by 13 percent.
- The Department of Agriculture cut 21 percent.
- Environmental Protection Agency, eliminating more than 50 programs cutting budget 31 percent cut.
- The Department of Labor cut by 21 percent Department of Health
- Human Services cut by 18 percent.
- The reduction to the National Institutes of Health would be even deeper.
Just out in the news today is the proposal to privative air traffic control.
Read long Politico article:
The president’s first blueprint would deeply cut State Department funds while boosting defense and law enforcement funding.
According to Politico the proposed White House budget "is the clearest practical expression yet of what Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon described as the “deconstruction of the administrative state” last month and his agenda of 'economic nationalism.’ ”
“This budget is the first step toward what will be, three or four years from now, a dramatically different federal government,” said Newt Gingrich, an informal Trump adviser and former House speaker who understands the power of even a small shift in the $4 trillion federal budget. Read Politico article
This is merely Bannon’s first step towards destroying the administrative state.
If he gets away with this look towards privatization of everything associated with the government. For example:
Privatize the best free tourist attraction in Washington, the Smithsonian
Privatize (or at least charge a few for using) The Library of Congress
Privatize the national parks
Privatize all Federal prisons and detention centers (and fill empty beds with those arrested for violating federal marijuana laws)
I’m sure readers can come up with more ideas.