The White House recently released a new budget proposed by the Trump administration. A lot of people are unhappy with the budget and the cuts it will make.
It’s hard to understand what the budget means without any visuals. Lucky for us, Hank Green made some charts to make it easier to comprehend the budget. The chart below shows the current budget.
As you can see, the vast majority of the money in the U.S. budget is allocated towards defense. The other departments that make up the top five areas of spending are health and human services, veteran’s affairs, education, and housing and urban development. The programs that receive the least amount of money include the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). CPB includes PBS and NPR while NEA provides funding for the arts (as the name suggests), and provides educational programs for children. Below is Trump’s proposed budget.
Trump’s budget would increase spending on defense, veteran’s affairs and homeland security. Spending would be cut in every other area. You may have noticed that CPB, NEA, and the “other” squares are completely missing from the chart above. That’s because Trump wants to completely get rid of spending for these programs.
Along with CPB and NEA, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services will completely lose funding. With the loss of these programs, we also lose funding for after school programs for children in low-income areas and funding for Meals on Wheels, which delivers food to the elderly. PBS will lose all of its funding as well. This might not seem important, but PBS airs Sesame Street. Sesame Street is an extremely important show that works hard to educate children of all economic backgrounds and prepare them for school. Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street, also provides educational programing for children across the globe.
Crucially important programs are at risk with Trump’s budget. Cutting these programs will not even save very much money. Currently, the federal government spends $3 million on Meals on Wheels. That seems like a lot, but to put it in perspective, that’s the equivalent of every person in the U.S. giving up one penny. Even then, there would be hundreds of thousands of dollars left over. Instead of allocating money towards programs that are important to the American people, Trump would rather put aside millions for a wall. Disadvantaged people and culture will be most hurt by Trump’s budget.
You might feel powerless about this situation, but you are not. You can help by donating to the cut programs and by calling your representatives to voice your concerns. Congress still has to vote on the budget, so it’s possible that this budget can be blocked.