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Trump's Budget Explained

2017-03-17 · explainer · Hank · 5:03 · watch on YouTube

Topic: US politics & society · mode: News analysis · tags: timely hook

Hank explains President Trump's proposed budget with one-billion-dollar blocks: mandatory spending is untouched and discretionary spending stays about the same, while the military, veterans' care and border control grow, paid for by cuts to research, international aid, education, the environment, the arts and public broadcasting; he expects Congress to have huge problems with it.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Trump's proposed budget; mandatory versus discretionary spending; one block = a billion dollars

  • ★★★ Hank says Trump's proposed budget leaves untouched programs like Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment and Social Security; these and other mandatory spending take up 73% of the US budget. — 00:00:06 · Donald Trump
  • ★★ Hank says US discretionary spending is $1.064 trillion, shown as 1,064 blocks of a billion dollars each. — 00:00:20

00:00:30 — Today's discretionary budget, department by department

  • ★★★ Hank lists today's discretionary budget in billion-dollar blocks: military about 590 (more than half), HHS 84, Veterans Affairs 75, Education 68, HUD 47, Homeland Security 41, State and aid 38, Energy 30, Agriculture 23, NASA 20, Transportation 18, Labor 12. — 00:00:36
  • ★ Hank adds Treasury (like the IRS) at 12 blocks, Commerce 9, the EPA 8 and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting half a block. — 00:00:57

00:01:08 — Increases: the military, Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security and the wall

  • ★★★ Hank says the Trump budget raises the military by 52 blocks, a 10% increase, enough to pay the entire current budgets of the EPA, CPB, Transportation and NASA. — 00:01:14 · Donald Trump
  • ★★ Hank says the military money would enlarge the Army and Marines, add jet fighters and warships, and, in the budget's words, accelerate the war against ISIS. — 00:01:26
  • ★★ Hank says Veterans Affairs gets four and a half more blocks, earmarked for health care programs. — 00:01:36
  • ★★ Hank says Homeland Security grows by about three blocks, mostly for border control: one and a half for detaining and removing undocumented immigrants, two and a half as a down payment on a 'big, beautiful wall', offset by counter-terrorism cuts. — 00:01:39

00:01:59 — Cuts department by department, down to the arts, humanities, museums and public broadcasting

  • ★★★ Hank says 13 blocks would come out of Health and Human Services, including the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and six blocks from the NIH's biomedical research, one of the world's largest research funders. (hedged) — 00:02:04
  • ★★★ Hank says 11 blocks would be cut from the State Department: international aid largely gone, UN climate change initiatives defunded and US contributions to UN peacekeeping reduced. — 00:02:21 · climate change
  • ★★ Hank says Education loses more than nine blocks, ending college scholarships for the poor, federal work-study and before- and after-school programs, while $1.5 billion goes to a private school voucher program. — 00:02:31
  • ★★ Hank says almost five blocks come out of Agriculture programs, including international food aid, rural development and conservation funding. — 00:02:45
  • ★★ Hank says more than four blocks are cut from Housing and Urban Development, including funding for Meals on Wheels, affordable housing and anti-poverty programs. — 00:02:52
  • ★★★ Hank says the EPA loses 2.5 blocks, 30% of its budget, the hardest hit of any agency by percent; 3,200 jobs and 50 agencies would go, plus Clean Power Plan funding. — 00:02:58
    • a number in question (doubtful): "50" — check against the recording
  • ★ Hank says the Labor Department loses two and a half blocks, mostly job programs for seniors, poor young people and the unemployed. — 00:03:12
  • ★★ Hank says $1.7 billion is taken from Energy, with $1.4 billion moved internally to managing the nuclear weapons arsenal and cuts to advanced clean energy technology programs. — 00:03:19
  • ★ Hank says Interior loses a block and a half that supports wildlife refuges, national heritage areas and new federally protected land. — 00:03:33
  • ★★ Hank says one block comes out of Justice, mostly because prison populations are decreasing, which he calls good news all around. — 00:03:41
  • ★★ Hank says NASA gets a small cut, almost entirely from the parts that study Earth's climate. — 00:03:47
  • ★★★ Hank says one small block holds the entire NEA, NEH, Institute of Museum and Library Services and Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and under Trump's budget they would no longer exist. (playful) — 00:03:52 · Donald Trump
  • ★ Hank says this is only a very basic account, since the departments hold thousands of programs that would not fit in a YouTube video. (hedged) — 00:04:12

00:04:23 — What is at stake; Congress, tax cuts and an unbalanced budget; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank says the budget holds much that many or most think worth fighting for: huge losses in clean-energy and medical research, aid for the elderly and disadvantaged, international aid and climate science. — 00:04:27 · climate change
  • ★★★ Hank says the budget now goes to the House and Senate to be argued over, and in reality Congress is going to have huge problems with it. — 00:04:47 · United States Congress
  • ★★ Hank says that if Trump's tax cuts are taken seriously, even with these cuts it will be an extremely unbalanced budget. — 00:04:47 · Donald Trump

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says Hank doesn't really know what the budget is meant to do beyond sharply raising military spending while keeping total spending almost exactly the same. (unsure) — video description
  • ★ The description recommends a Bloomberg article as the best look at the individual programs being cut. — video description
  • ★★ Hank notes that sources give different totals for the cuts because they count differently: some leave mandatory spending out, since it can increase but there is no way to stop it from increasing. — video description
  • ★★★ Hank says he is bummed about much of the budget: a ton of NASA's efficient and valuable Earth Science is being scrapped, along with many programs that help people in need, especially after-school and educational assistance. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again · discretionary spending · United States Armed Forces

Also: People: Donald Trump

Organizations: Corporation for Public Broadcasting · Institute of Museum and Library Services · Internal Revenue Service · Islamic State · Meals on Wheels · NASA · National Endowment for the Arts · National Endowment for the Humanities · National Institutes of Health · United Nations · United Nations peacekeeping · United States Army · United States Congress · United States Department of Agriculture · United States Department of Commerce · United States Department of Education · United States Department of Energy · United States Department of Health and Human Services · United States Department of Homeland Security · United States Department of Housing and Urban Development · United States Department of Justice · United States Department of Labor · United States Department of State · United States Department of the Interior · United States Department of the Treasury · United States Department of Transportation · United States Department of Veterans Affairs · United States Environmental Protection Agency · United States House of Representatives · United States Marine Corps · United States Senate

Concepts: climate change · Development aid · energy transition · food aid · government budget balance · greenhouse gas · illegal immigration · mandatory spending · public broadcasting · School voucher

Policies: Clean Power Plan · Donald Trump tax plan · Federal Work-Study Program · Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program · Medicaid · Medicare · Social Security · Trump wall · Unemployment benefits

Only in the description or credits: Bloomberg News

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