Cut Spending By Costing U.S. $65.8B

For all those who bought into President-elect Trump’s populism understand that his and the Republican’s plans to cut federal spending fall on the backs of the middle class and workers. That includes veterans’ health care, along with health care for many

Americans, in addition to raising consumer prices.

For instance, Trump wants to impose new tariffs to the tune of $2.7 trillion over ten years. He has claimed that will be paid for by the foreign countries. He also claimed that Mexico would pay for the border wall. The U.S. hasn’t seen a penny of that money.

Economists say those tariffs will raise prices for U.S. consumers. And middle- and working-class people will pay a disproportionate amount since they spend a greater percentage of their incomes buying things, including essentials, than the rich.

Then they want to cut $516 billion spent on “unauthorized” programs. Those are programs that Congress has not explicitly authorized spending for.

Sounds good. But wait a minute. That $516 billion includes veterans’ health care, along with the State and Justice departments and Nasa. Ooops.

They would save another $180 billion by cutting food assistance for poor people, including children. Another $109 billion would be saved by imposing work requirements on Medicaid recipients. Sound good? What about people who are too ill to work? I guess they will just have to go away.

There are other proposals to cut federal spending, but the real kicker, the thing that shines a spotlight on what Trump and the GOP really want is to cut funding for the Internal Revenue Service.

The Republicans have already cut IRS spending by $20 billion, and they want to cut more. That first cut increased the national debt by $65.8 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Republicans have claimed that increased IRS spending would mean more headaches for middle-class taxpayers. What it actually means is that tax cheats would have to follow the law. It would mean corporations and the 1 percent would not be able to operate in the legally questionable gray areas of federal tax laws.

As conservatives are fond of saying in other areas: If you’re not doing anything wrong, what are you worried about?