Dems pan Trump’s budget as helping the wealthy

Democrats are quickly panning President Trump’s fiscal year 2019 budget plan, arguing the $3 trillion in requested cuts would target middle-class Americans. 

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) called the blueprint “astounding” after the GOP passed a tax law that could increase the deficit by nearly $1.5 trillion over a decade. 

“If Americans want a picture of who President Trump works for, the combination of the tax bill and this budget make it crystal clear. He’s for the rich and powerful at the expense of the middle class,” Schumer said in a statement. 

{mosads}He added that “older Americans … now have to worry. Many others … would be hurt by this budget as well.” 

Trump’s budget includes deep cuts to some federal agencies, an increase in funding for the Pentagon and $18 billion for a wall on the Mexican border. It also recommends cuts to Medicare and Medicaid and repealing the Affordable Care Act.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the ranking member of the Budget Committee, said Trump’s request is “morally bankrupt and bad economic policy.” 

“This is a budget for the billionaire class, for Wall Street, for corporate CEOs, for defense contractors and for the wealthiest people in this country. It must be defeated,” he said. 

The document’s release comes after Trump signed a bipartisan budget agreement to boost defense and nondefense discretionary spending caps for 2018 and 2019 by about $300 billion.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said the fiscal request “revives zombie proposals even Republicans rejected,” including the fight over ObamaCare. 

“It’s impossible to reconcile this dead-on-arrival budget with the bipartisan funding bill Trump just touted last week. …. More evidence that the more the Oval Office keeps its chaos away from us, the more Congress can work in bipartisan fashion,” he said. 

The plan, like previous administrations’ budget requests, is not likely to become law, but underscores the administration’s priorities heading into the midterm elections in November. 

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said Trump is “doubling down on the Republican effort to squeeze working families in order to pay for his massive tax giveaway to the very wealthy and big corporations.”
 
The budget includes funding for Trump’s long-awaited infrastructure plan, which is also receiving a cool reception among Democrats.

Schumer said the infrastructure plan would “appease his political allies, but not rebuild the country.” 

“The president’s infrastructure proposal would do very little to make our ailing infrastructure better, but would put unsustainable burdens on our local government and lead to Trump tolls all over the country, all while undermining important protections like Buy America,” he said.  

Any infrastructure legislation is expected to need 60 votes, including the support of Democrats, to get through the Senate.