Trump’s administration promises:
- to cut corporate and individual taxes
- build a multi-billion dollar wall
- infrastructure spending to improve airports, bridges, and roads
- massive military spending (including nuclear weapons)
- replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with cheaper better healthcare, etc.
How do they plan to pay for that with less income from taxes?
A group of House Republicans on Thursday introduced the first major bill to fund President Trump’s border wall, saying the government could collect billions of dollars by imposing a 2 percent fee on all the money Mexicans and other immigrants send back home.
“This bill is simple — anyone who sends their money to countries that benefit from our porous borders and illegal immigration should be responsible for providing some of the funds needed to complete the wall,” Rep. Mike Rogers, Alabama Republican, said in a statement. “This bill keeps money in the American economy, and most importantly, it creates a funding stream to build the wall.” Mr. Rogers and Rep. Lou Barletta of Pennsylvania are leading the effort.
The World Bank puts remittances from the U.S. at more than $50 billion a year. A Pew Research Center analysis puts the figure at $133 billion in 2015.
Mexico is one of the biggest beneficiaries, with $24 billion alone going from the U.S. to its southern neighbor in 2015, making it one of Mexico’s top sources of income. China and India rounded out the top three countries.
And, the HFCA vs. ACA solution is to have less paper:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/pointing-piles-paper-spicer-makes-the-worst-argument-all
President Trump is proposing a massive increase in defense spending of $54 billion (~10%) while cutting domestic spending and foreign aid.
Cuts with the EPA -31%, State Department -29%, Dept. of Agriculture -21%, Dept. of Labor -21%, HUD by 13.2%, UN, USAID, while zeroing out funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Arts and the United States Institute of Peace, among others.
The proposal would also reduce funding for multinational organization like the World Bank by $650 million.
Here’s the complete list of the independent agencies Trump wants to defund: