Yah! Let's Make America Suffer Again! These cuts represents the widest swath of reductions in federal programs since World War II.

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EVERYBODY, I mean EVERYBODY is now hollering about President Donald J. Trump's budget proposal. I say "proposal" because Congress by the law and United States Constitution still has the "power of the purse" and can roll back many of the odious parts of the proposal. At the very core of Trump's grandiloquently named "America First: A Budget Blueprint To Make America Great Again," is his belief that jacking up military spending by $54 billion is going to "make America great" as if ONLY military spending was going to grow the economy. But the cuts also reveal an attempt to realize an old Republican goal -- a smaller federal government. Trump plan would drastically cut the federal government down by eliminating agencies, services, and programs that he sees as useless, and shift the burden and to pick up the slack on to state governments.

Indeed, his budget proposal, such as it is, calls for draconian cuts to 18 agencies that Trump sees as either not important or unnecessary to his "America remake" plans. Driven by his own nativist brand of populism that relies on a narrow, myopic inward looking meme, Trump's budget is an American nightmare in the making that is designed to "make America suffer again." And the funny thing is that if his budget is enacted as is the people who would be hurt the most are Trump voters and supporters suddenly waking up to the reality of so-called "Obamacare" and its benefits and "their party's" efforts to replace it with a "hideous something else."

Trump's plan would eliminate long-standing federal programs that help the poor, fund scientific research, and promote America's "soft power" abroad. Some agencies would be hit particularly hard, with sharp reductions of more than 20 percent at the Agriculture, Labor and State departments, and of more than 30 percent at the Environmental Protection Agency that some Republicans, including the president, vowed to eliminate all together.

The budget proposal also proposed eliminating future federal government support for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Within EPA alone, 50 programs and 3,200 positions would be cut by Trump's knife.

According to historical budget records these cuts represents the widest swath of reductions in federal programs since World War II. Economists say that they could lead to a sizable cutback in the federal non-military workforce; something White House officials said was one of their goals. Virtually every agency will see some sort of cut, with only Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs getting a boost. Still, Congress will have the final say, and some lawmakers have already expressed opposition and concern to many of the proposals.

Here's a breakdown of Trump's nightmare budget proposal:

Proposed Department Cuts

Health and Human Services, the department responsible for implementing Obamacare and its proposed repeal, would face a $12.6 billion cut -- a 16.2% decrease

Environmental Protection Agency: $2.6 billion, or 31.4%

State Department: $11 billion, or 28.7%

Labor Department: $2.5 billion, or 20.7%

Agriculture Department: $5 billion, or 20.7%

US Army Corps of Engineers: $1 billion, a 16.3% cut

Cuts National Institutes of Health spending by $5.8 billion, a nearly 20% cut. Also overhauls NIH to focus on "highest priority" efforts and eliminates the Fogarty International Center.

Other double-digit cuts include Commerce at 15.7%; Education at 13.5%; Housing and Urban Development at 13.2%; Transportation at 12.7%, and Interior at 11.7%.

Proposed Program cuts

Eliminates the USDA Water and Wastewater loan and grant program, a reduction of $498 million

Cuts $250 million by zeroing out National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grants and programs that support coastal and marine management, research and education

Reduces or eliminates 20 programs within the Department of Education, including Striving Readers, Teacher Quality Partnership and Impact Aid support payments for federal property and international education programs

Cuts FEMA state and local grant funding by $667 million, including the Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant Program and Homeland Security Grant Program

Eliminates funds for Section 4 Capacity Building for Community Development and Affordable Housing

Ceases payments to the United Nations' climate change programs for the Green Climate Fund and precursor funds

Scales back funding for the World Bank and other international development banks by $650 million over three years

Cuts federal subsidies to Amtrak and eliminates support for Amtrak's long-distance services.

Cuts funding to the Federal Transit Administration's Capital Investment Program so new projects will not be funded

Shrinks the Treasury workforce by an unspecified amount

Stops funding for the Clean Power Plan

Programs Trump proposes to eliminate or zero out

Trump's budget would eliminate funding for some small, independent agencies entirely, as well as zero out some federal programs:

The 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, which supports before- and after-school programs and summer programs

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, which funds research including clean energy

African Development Foundation

Appalachian Regional Commission

Chemical Safety Board

Community Development Block Grant, which in part funds Meals on Wheels

Community Development Financial Institutions Fund grants, under Treasury

Community Services Block Grant, under HHS

Corporation for National and Community Service

Corporation for Public Broadcasting

Delta Regional Authority

Denali Commission

Economic Development Administration

Essential Air Service program

Global Climate Change Initiative

Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, Chesapeake Bay funding, and other regional programs under EPA.

HOME Investment Partnerships Program, Choice Neighborhoods, and the Self-help Homeownership Opportunity Program, all under HUD

Institute of Museum and Library Services

Inter-American Foundation

US Trade and Development Agency

Legal Services Corporation

Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program

McGovern-Dole International Food for Education program

Minority Business Development Agency, under Commerce

National Endowment for the Arts

National Endowment for the Humanities

NASA's Office of Education

Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation

Northern Border Regional Commission

Overseas Private Investment Corporation

State Energy Program

Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants program, the second-largest program feds have used to influence local education

TIGER transportation grants

United States Institute of Peace

United States Interagency Council on Homelessness

Weatherization Assistance Program

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

[Source: www.CNN.com ]

The $1.5 trillion proposed budget is already causing great anxiety, especially in rural America, and Trump's base. For example, in Republican Kentucky that Trump won and he's consistently boasting about bringing back "coal jobs," he's now set to eliminate the Appalachian Regional Commission. The ARC is a 52-year-old federal agency that seeks to create jobs in 420 counties across 13 states, including the West Virginia and Kentucky coalfields.

The ARC began its work in 1965 as part of Democratic President Lyndon Johnson's famous "war on poverty." In the past two years alone, the agency has spent $175.7 million on 662 projects that is says has created or retained more than 23,670 jobs. That investment has paid off: In Kentucky, the commission has awarded $707,000 to the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, which used the money to train 670 people who now have full time jobs earning a combined $13.6 million in wages.

Indeed, as details of President Trump's budget starts to sink in across the nation, Americans, especially "ordinary Americas" that the president claims to be working for, are trying to parse how the changes to the government's spending plan will impact their daily lives. To be sure, it is only a proposal, an opening gambit, if you will, in what is likely to be a protracted public argument over national priorities. But for ALL Americans this proposal is very important, and historically crucial, because it signals what and how the president is thinking and his wish list for the size and shape of government.

And it's not pretty. In fact, it's downright scary and brutal.

Authors Website: http://www.CSG2017.com

Authors Bio:

MICHAEL DERK ROBERTS
Small Business Consultant, Editor, and Social Media & Communications Expert, New York

Over the past 20 years I've been a top SMALL BUSINESS CONSULTANT and POLITICAL CAMPAIGN STRATEGIST in Brooklyn, New York, running successful campaigns at the City, State and Federal levels. I'm a published author and award-winning journalist. I've been honored and recognized for my deep, hard-hitting analytical work on socio-economic and political issues confronting the United States in general and New York City in particular. I'm he Senior Consultant, COMMONSENSE STRATEGIES (www.commonsensestrategies.biz ), a Marketing, Social Media & Communications company based in Brooklyn. I also host two weekly podcasts at www.blogtalkradio.com/shangoking .The first, aired on Saturday mornings is called BTS -- Business, Technology and Social Media and the second, The Roberts Report, is aired on Sundays. You can also follow me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mdvroberts. (347) 279-6668.