Unheralded

TOM DAVIES: The Verdict — Budget Cuts? Middle-Class Taxpayers Take It on the Chin

Not that this will surprise any nonbelievers, but the absolute and total lie by POTUS 45 — that President Obama ordered some sort of wiretapping or surveillance on him or his administration — has now been revealed by all the government agencies involved in security to be false. (Or as that idiot Sean Spicer, 45’s official press spokesman, would say: “No, no, they didn’t say it wasn’t true, they just said they couldn’t prove it.”)

Every time a newsperson speaks on a subject Herr Spicer doesn’t like, he either cuts them off, presents 45’s bizarre version of facts or insults them. He gives new meaning to the euphemism “donkey hole.”

I repeat myself when I say that I don’t fault 45’s supporters who supported him because they felt ignored — but I assume that even they know by now that 45 lied about what he’d do from the day he first announced he was running. He has actually done one thing he said he’d do, though. He has drained the swamp. Now it’s all in the White House.

I have nothing against wealth, but his filling Cabinet with nothing but extremely wealthy people provides ample evidence that the Republican president has no idea of what the problems of working Americans are. Born with a silver spoon in his mouth (and a spade up the other end), Trump has no concern for the very people he promised he’d support.

Remember his promise that everyone would have health care and no one would lose what they have? Now, apparently, it is “access” to health care that will apply to all. That means you get it if you have the means to pay for that access. Otherwise, you are, in fact, uninsured.

The party of “no” had eight years to modify the ACA — it’s the Affordable Care Act, not Obamacare — and it didn’t come up with one damned thing except this: 20 million are going to lose coverage under Trumpcare.

I am not now and never have been knowledgeable about budgeting and taxation. I do, however, understand what it means when a person says one thing and then does something else.

Take the Republican-sponsored bill before the Minnesota Legislature. The Republicans want to cut taxes $1.35 billion in the next two years, claiming they’re emphasizing help for the middle-class.

How will they do this?

They are not cutting income taxes. They’d like to freeze the automatic increase in the tobacco tax, which is used primarily to address health issues and fight smoking. Meanwhile, they strive to make sure statewide business taxes will disappear … another example of benefiting the top 2 percent at the expense of those who need the relief the most.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar has outlined how 45’s proposed federal budget supports (not!) the middle class. She leaves nothing to the imagination. Here’s how she says POTUS’s budget will directly impact Minnesota, North Dakota and the rest of the Upper Midwest:

1. Cuts the DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE by 21 percent, slashing job training and other vital programs throughout the Midwestern farm states.

2. Eliminates RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS to improve drinking water and sewer systems on the heels of the disaster in Flint, Mich.

3. Cuts RURAL HEALTH INITIATIVES that fund telehealth programs, rural senior services and rural hospitals.

4. Eliminates the GREAT LAKES RESTORATION INITIATIVE, a program with bipartisan support that helps protect the Great Lakes — so important to Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois and Michigan. The initiative’s planned elimination also has Canadian provinces gravely concerned, too.

5. Cuts CRITICAL MEDICAL RESEARCH happening at the National Institutes of Health, many great Midwestern universities and Midwestern medical research gems from Rochester, Minn., to Cleveland.

6. Eliminates funding to support RURAL AIRPORTS in North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, Indiana and every other Heartland state.

7. Cuts the NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION, which is needed for Warning of Extreme Weather. (Note to the Administration: We have a lot of extreme weather in the Midwest.)

8. Cuts state and local FEMA GRANTS, which have helped Midwestern communities from North Dakota and Minnesota through Iowa and Illinois prepare for floods.

9. Eliminates the MANUFACTURING EXTENSION PROGRAM that helps small manufacturing companies create jobs.

10. Cuts a critical HEATING ASSISTANCE PROGRAM that helps 339,000 Minnesotans — and so many other Midwesterners in cold-weather states stay warm all winter.

Note to the White House: It gets really cold in the Midwest, and most people can’t get to Florida every weekend.





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