Last week, Trump told the nation, 'We will always protect your Medicare and your Social Security.' That message was not part of his budget proposal for fiscal year 2021.
Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images On Monday, President Trump will reveal his budget proposal for the federal government in 2021, a document that ultimately reads more like a wish list than a final plan, due to significant back-and-forth with lawmakers before final approval. In making the latest rendition, the president has again showed his party’s disdain for poor and working-class Americans, recommending $2 trillion in cuts from the mandatory spending programs that make up the social safety net.
Most notably, the $4.8 trillion proposal for fiscal year 2021 reportedly includes a $130 billion slash to Medicare prescription-drug pricing, a $70 billion cut by tightening eligibility for federal disability benefits, as well as $292 billion in savings by restricting other social programs, including an increase in the work requirements for Medicaid and food stamps.
“We will always protect your Medicare and your Social Security,” Trump said last week at the State of the Union, proving again the mendacity of his report to the nation. In addition to the targeting of Medicare prescription-drug pricing, the budget also intends to cut the Social Security Disability Insurance program providing benefits to disabled members of the workforce; last year, the administration recommended a $10 billion cut to the program.
Like his 2020 fiscal proposal, Trump intends to increase military spending — this year by .3 percent, to $740.5 billion. Perhaps most notable among adds in 2021 is the 12 percent increase in funding for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The boost represents a major change for NASA under Trump — in his first fiscal proposal year, the administration recommended cuts of $560 million — as the president hopes to put astronauts back on the moon by 2024.
As New York’s Sarah Jones noted last time around, the proposal to cut popular programs “sets up a costly political battle for Republicans, who will have to convince voters, again, that they’re motivated by something other than pure animus for the poor. They’ll have a difficult time making themselves heard over the president’s budget, which whittles down some of the most popular entitlement programs in the country partly to secure funding for his border fence.
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