The massacre posing as a serious budget proposal released by the White House Thursday has sparked some responses from leading Democrats. Most of these came our way via e-mail:
Sen. Kamala D. Harris of California said:
“A budget is a reflection of our nation’s values and it’s clear from this proposal, President Trump does not value government’s essential functions of public health, public safety, and public education. If you are a child, college student, or senior, live in a rural or urban area, are a worker in need of a safe workplace, or simply want to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and drive on good roads, this budget is a disaster for you and your family. We will not make our country stronger with cuts to meals and jobs programs for seniors, scientific research to cure cancer, financial assistance to students, diplomatic and humanitarian efforts to make our nation safer, support for farmers, or affordable housing.
“In the first months of this Administration, the President has shown he is willing to go to extreme lengths to cut core functions to the bone in order to make taxpayers pay for a border wall experts agree we don’t need and give tax breaks to corporations. I will fight this budget proposal at every step because middle class Americans are counting on us to stand up for them.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said:
“President Trump’s budget is morally obscene and bad economic policy. It will cause devastating pain to the very people Trump promised to help during the campaign. At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, when 43 million Americans are living in poverty, and half of older Americans have no retirement savings, we should not slash programs that senior citizens, children, and working people rely on in order to provide a massive increase in spending to the military industrial complex. Trump’s priorities are exactly opposite of where we should be heading as a nation.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said:
“The President’s budget is irresponsible and will short-change middle class New Yorkers, seniors, and students alike while doing harm to a fragile economy. I will do everything I can to fight these harmful cuts and protect funding that helps build our roads and bridges, supports our students and seniors, and makes smart investments to help grow the New York economy.”
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada said:
“This budget is a moral affront to all Americans who believe that we should be creating ladders of opportunity, investing in our communities, and building an economy that works for everyone. President Trump and his Administration would rather waste billions on an ineffective border wall than invest in our children and our middle class. These egregious cuts will cost us thousands of jobs, irreparably harm the American economy, and threaten our national security.
“Trump’s budget will harm Nevada in a myriad of ways and I will vehemently oppose it at every step. Alone, his proposal to invest in Yucca Mountain is a nonstarter – it is dead, it has been for years, and that will not change. Unfortunately, the absurdity of this budget does not stop there: cuts to the EPA will harm Nevada’s natural lands, public health, and economy; cuts to the Department of Education will eliminate essential programs and grants that ensure all children regardless of race, income, or zip code are getting quality education; cuts to Department of Energy will slash initiatives focusing on renewable energy and solar projects, as well as all funding for programs assisting our Native Tribes; housing cuts will push Nevada families, the elderly, and people with disabilities out of affordable housing and into homelessness. And President Trump has shown he is nothing but empty promises and bloated rhetoric when it comes to investing in infrastructure: his budget cuts billions in funding for investment in current and future transportation and water needs, and harms our rural communities when we should be assisting them.
“Instead of ramping up spending to address the phantom threat of immigrants, we should be investing in our communities, our middle class, and our children. President Trump’s budget proposal is just another manifesto of the misguided beliefs he touted on the campaign trail and shows he has no intention of fulfilling his inane promise to ‘Make America Great Again.’ Despite what President Trump may think, Congress has final say on our national budget and Senate Democrats are going to ensure that his egregious proposals go nowhere.”
Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez said:
“Donald Trump’s budget blueprint has one goal: to devastate hardworking American families. Trump built his campaign on a mountain of populist promises, then he brought a swamp to Washington with an administration full of Goldman Sachs bankers. Now he’s cutting afterschool programs and college financial aid, gutting help for American manufacturing and slashing infrastructure investments that could create jobs in rural communities.
“Thanks in large part to the policies of the Obama Administration, we’re in the middle of the longest streak of private-sector job growth in our history. But Trump apparently didn’t learn any lessons from the end of the last Republican presidency, and now he’s intent on reversing course just so the wealthy can pocket new tax breaks – the consequences could be catastrophic for our economy.
“If there was any doubt left about where his true priorities lie, this budget just made it crystal clear – not with working families. Trump is a president of the rich, bought by the rich, and working for the rich."
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said during a press conference:
“This budget is really a slap in the face of the future. … This is all about a philosophical distrust of the role of the federal government in any way of meeting the needs of the American people. ...
“Should we subject all spending to the harshest scrutiny? We certainly should … to make sure those investments accomplish what they set out to do. ...
“But that’s not what this is about. This is systemic deconstruction of the federal government.”
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said:
“This budget proposal from President Trump does not reflect a balanced approach. Instead, it includes many short-sighted choices that if implemented could actually harm our country’s strength and long-term growth. The Trump budget proposes to dramatically slash public investments in programs like early childhood education, job training, scientific research, and the protection of economic and natural resources like the Chesapeake Bay. We should be serious about addressing the fiscal issues in our country and work together to address the impact that the across-the-board spending cuts have had on the military and our national security. However, the roadmap the President has laid out does not meet those goals. I urge him to commit to working with Congress to take a more responsible, businesslike approach – one that also respects the role of smart investments in our nation’s economic future.”
Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said:
“Budgets show us a President’s priorities, and based on what President Trump released today, I’m concerned that he’s continuing to push policies that would hurt Virginians. While I support the Administration’s commitment to investments in defense, deep cuts to the State Department jeopardize our national security. Despite President Trump’s promises that Mexico would pay for a border wall, this budget shows he’s trying to force American taxpayers to pick up the tab for a wall that won’t make us safer.
“While the budget is short on details, the drastic cuts threaten programs that help ensure Virginians have clean water, safe roads and bridges, well-funded public schools, and quality, affordable health care. The budget also shows President Trump intends to keep treating federal employees as a punching bag, while in reality these workers are patriotic Americans who keep our government running. Just weeks after President Trump promised us clean water and air in his joint address to Congress, he released a budget that completely eliminates the Chesapeake Bay Program and radically cuts funding for the agency that protects water resources like the James River and monitoring sea level rise in in Hampton Roads. And I’m disappointed that President Trump’s promises to fix our crumbling infrastructure so far haven’t amounted to any action to fix the roads and bridges of Virginia.
“There is already bipartisan agreement that President Trump’s harmful budget will be a nonstarter in Congress. I hope that my colleagues in the Senate will work across the aisle on a budget that charts a different roadmap, which makes the investments to help Virginia families get ahead that are absent from President Trump’s budget proposal.”