Message received

It would be difficult to overemphasize just how awful President Trump’s proposed 2019 budget would be for a large portion of Americans.

In a word: disastrous.

The primary targets are the poor and anyone else struggling to make ends meet, including those who receive pretty much any governmental services outside of the Pentagon, thanks to a 40 percent proposed cut to “non-defense discretionary” spending.

Not surprisingly, despite Trump’s pre-election promises to keep his hands off Medicare and Medicaid—two major expenditures that primarily serve poor, elderly and disabled people—those programs would be gutted under the proposal that he released on Monday, Feb. 12. Among the other biggies is a $214 billion reduction in food assistance, a $21 billion cut to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, and a $47 billion cut to Section 8 housing.

Trump’s proposal would slash spending for public education in order to fund private school vouchers, a primary goal of his secretary of education, billionaire heiress Betsy DeVos. Trump’s own pet projects: boosting military spending and funding a wall along our southern border.

The big winners: Again, not surprisingly, corporations and the ultra wealthy, for whom Trump has been working overtime to benefit. A prime example of that already happening is the passage of his recent tax overhaul that gave that segment of Americans, Trump included, a major tax break.

What’s astonishing is that, under the proposal, the federal deficit would grow by more than $7 trillion over the next decade.

The good news is that Trump doesn’t establish the budget. That’s the job of Congress. Still, the plan gives a clear picture of his vision of America. Message received.