I am not as worried about the Trump administration’s proposed budget blueprint as some are. It is as much a campaign document as a serious attempt at a budget. And, as David Jackson points out in a recent USA Today article, “Even some Republicans balk at some of the proposed double- digit reductions in programs ranging from foreign aid to the Environmental Protection Agency, with outright eliminations of programs that range from the National Endowment for the Arts to legal aid for the poor.”
Trump’s “art of the deal” style, it seems, is to put out the most outrageous proposals, claims, or statements and then begin to walk them back under the rubric of “negotiation” and making a deal. That’s not all bad as long as everyone understands what he is doing and that we should never, ever take this man seriously as to what he says. His rhetoric may be horrifying, but what we need to do is fight like hell to counter and soften the actual policies and legislation which will actually pass. Make no mistake, the final budget will not be good (after all, Republicans control both Houses of Congress and the White House) but it can be improved.
My concern though is that the budget blueprint signals the kind of priorities this Administration will pursue. A release from J Street (the pro Israel, pro peace lobby) puts it most succinctly: This “…blueprint embodies an isolationist worldview and dependence on military might to solve problems at the expense of multilateral diplomacy.” The draconian cuts to the State Department (apparently rolled over for by Secretary Tillerson) mostly in the area of foreign aid makes it clear that the Trumpites much prefer the “hard power” of military threat and action to the “soft power” of actual diplomacy which has proved so effective since the end of World War II.
I do not dispute that one of the chief responsibilities of government is to provide for the common defense and to keep its people safe from “enemies foreign and domestic.” I do dispute the assertion that the best way to do this is through massive investment in military spending when we already have — far and away — the most powerful and effective fighting force in the world.
Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s budget director, makes the point that this budget plan simply reflects what the President campaigned on, but he did pledge to work with Congress to resolve disputes and stated that this is not a “take it or leave it” kind of plan.
Let us devoutly hope not. For, if they try to force us to take it, we will simply have to leave it!
That We All May Be One 
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