If there is truth in the old adage that “budgets are moral documents,” then President Donald Trump’s fiscal year 2020 budget, its first part released today, is morally bankrupt. It aims debilitating cuts at programs on which American families rely in order to pay for tax cuts, strips regulators’ ability to stop corporate wrongdoers and polluters, and launches yet another brutal attack on Americans’ health care. Every year, pundits declare the president’s budget “dead on arrival,” but Americans should make no mistake: Trump’s FY 2020 budget is a clear statement of his priorities, and its policies are those the president would enact if given the opportunity. And Trump’s priorities and policies reveal his sheer contempt for the “forgotten men and women” for whom he pledged to fight.
In fact, this year, Trump’s first ruse—even before his accounting gimmicks begin—is the budget rollout itself. The budget is already more than a month late thanks to Trump’s 35-day government shutdown, but it is being released in two parts: Today, Trump revealed a message-heavy budget overview. But Americans will have to wait another week before learning many of the specifics of his deep cuts; the complete budget is slated for March 18. While this ruse may obfuscate details of Trump’s devastating policies, it does not change the reality that the administration will be seeking drastic cuts to key priorities that the American people strongly support.