How Trump's budget weaponizes the worst GOP pathologies

This is your brain on Trump. Any questions?

President Trump and House Republicans.
(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

President Trump's budget looks like a liberal blogger's caricature of what a Republican budget on steroids would be: yuge tax cuts skewed to the rich, a large increase in defense spending, and red ink as far as the eye can see. We're talking deep cuts to Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, social services for the poor and disabled, most federal agencies, farm subsidies, pension benefits, college loans, highway funds, medical research, and foreign aid.

Oh, and the budget also relies on fuzzy math.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry is a writer and fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. His writing has appeared at Forbes, The Atlantic, First Things, Commentary Magazine, The Daily Beast, The Federalist, Quartz, and other places. He lives in Paris with his beloved wife and daughter.