What's going on with Trump/GOP's cuts to government services and agency practices?
I was reading an article, "They Shoot Messengers, Don't They? What Trump and Erdogon Share" at the Center for Economic Policy Research. Answer: They both fire department heads who report bad news. The article, from the Economic Policy Institute concerns the firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics recently. In the middle I came across a list of budget cuts and acts of sabotage against government agencies. I began to research cuts to government services as a result.
A little background first:
In a nutshell, the One Big Beautiful Boondoggle Act will cut federal government tax revenues by $5 trillion (over 10 years). This article from the Tax Foundation explains the cuts. This cut will be balanced by about $1 trillion in economic growth and $1 trillion in cuts to programs like Medicaid, SNAP, climate mitigation, and renewable energy support. But increased interest payments on borrowing will cost the government another $1 trillion -- resulting in a net national debt increase of $4 trillion over 10 years. (from the Tax Foundation article, hyperlinked above)
Which agencies will see reduced budgets? All agencies except Homeland Security, the Defense (or War) Department, Transportation Dept., and the Veterans Administration.
From the article, a graph and some highlights:
"President Trump on Friday [April 25, 2025] unveiled an initial version of his $1.7 trillion fiscal 2026 discretionary funding budget, which included staggering cuts of 22% to non-defense agencies. (These are budgetary "discretionary" departments, not the "nondiscretionary programs such as Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare.)
The Defense Department would see its funding increased by 13% to more than $1 trillion, more than 10% of which would come in the proposed reconciliation bill. Nearly every other agency in government would see dramatic reductions.
From this article at the CEPR I found a paragraph about spending reductions or eliminated practices:
Example One: Human Rights, "The State Department under Marco Rubio seems to think little of human rights and seeks to change the term’s definition. NPR reports that the department will no longer include criticisms of poor [foreign] prison conditions, [foreign] government corruption, or political processes that are restrictive, in its reports on international human rights. That means [foreign] government repression, such as restricting peaceful assembly or preventing free and fair elections, will no longer be documented by the agency." (from this CEPR.org report)
Example Two: Data on Greenhouse Gases: "The Environmental Protection Agency is planning to eliminate long-standing requirements for polluters to collect and report their emissions of the heat-trapping gases that cause climate change. The move, ordered by a Trump appointee, would affect thousands of industrial facilities across the country, including oil refineries, power plants and coal mines as well as those that make petrochemicals, cement, glass, iron and steel, according to documents reviewed by ProPublica."
Additional information at this Reuters' article.
Example Three: U.S. Census reduces staff, "As federal agencies brace for the Trump administration's next round of slashing the U.S. government, recent staff departures are already raising concerns about whether the Census Bureau can continue producing reliable statistics for the country."
Example Four: Censuring Academic Journals: "The Trump administration has slashed funding for universities and scientific research. Now, its lackeys appear to be escalating their tactics by menacing academic journals. . . . "A publication's editorial decisions are none of the government's business, whether it's a newspaper or a medical journal," JT Morris, a senior supervising attorney at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression"
Example Five: Disappearing Government Agencies' web pages: "On Friday January 31, 2025, several federal government datasets went offline. The datasets taken down included some widely used, large-scale national health surveys, indices, and data dashboards that inform research, policy making, and media coverage about health care and public health. For example, several Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) surveys and datasets were offline. . . (re a CDC survey now offline) The survey has been used for decades to inform policymakers, the media, and the public on a wide range of health topics, such as obesity rates, access to breast cancer screenings, vaccination rates, and the share of people with pre-existing conditions." (from Kaiser Family Foundation article)
Example Six: Budget Cuts to agencies: Headstart, Environmental Protection Agency, IRS. "Looking at his initial or “skinny” budget proposal, along with an “appendix” the White House released last Friday, Trump’s budget would eliminate at least 46 programs and agencies." (from a PBS article, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/46-programs-trump-wants-to-eliminate-according-to-his-proposed-budget)
Example Seven: Elimination of Climate Change mitigation laws: "Summary
Trump proposes $15 billion cuts to renewable energy, carbon capture
Cancels $6 billion for EV chargers
Unclear how Congress would make cuts to funds already in US law
$4.5 billion in USDA cuts includes conservation programs
Plan entirely cuts EPA program on environmental justice
WASHINGTON, May 2 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Friday proposed cutting billions of dollars in federal funding next year for projects including renewable energy and electric vehicle chargers, and gutting programs aimed at curbing climate change.
The proposal to Congress was part of a wider request to cut $163 billion in 2026 federal spending, slashing more than a fifth of non-military spending.
No comments:
Post a Comment