From the Washington Post…
President Trump released his much-anticipated budget on Thursday, and the funding cuts are being dissected left and right.
There are 19 federal agencies that have the distinction of facing a 100 percent cut — i.e. extinction. The cuts to these agencies total about $3 billion. They offset about 6 percent of the $54 billion Trump wants to add in military spending.
Below the fold I’ll just list the 19 agencies and link to their homepages. Go to WaPo for more info…
So here’s what Conspiracy-Theorist-in-Chief wants to do to the EPA (from the Washington Post):
The Trump administration plans to take a sledgehammer to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Thursday’s proposal by the White House would slash the EPA’s budget by 31 percent — nearly one third — from its current level of $8.1 billion to $5.7 billion. It would cut 3,200 positions, or more than 20 percent of the agency’s current workforce of about 15,000.
“You can’t drain the swamp and leave all the people in it. So, I guess the first place that comes to mind will be the Environmental Protection Agency,” Mick Mulvaney, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, told reporters. “The president wants a smaller EPA. He thinks they overreach, and the budget reflects that.”
From CNN…
Two federal judges have temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s travel ban, both citing Trump’s statements about Muslims during the presidential campaign as part of their rulings.
A ruling by a federal judge in Hawaii Wednesday resulted in a temporary restraining order nationwide, hours before it was set to go into effect. In a decision published Thursday morning, another federal judge in Maryland specifically blocked the 90-day ban on immigration for citizens of six Muslim-majority countries.
In a 43-page ruling, US District Court Judge Derrick Watson, who presides in Honolulu, concluded in no uncertain terms that the new executive order failed to pass legal muster at this stage and the state had established “a strong likelihood of success” on their claims of religious discrimination.
Well yeah. I think anyone could have told you that…
From NPR…
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes says he doesn’t believe “there was an actual tap of Trump Tower,” contrary to claims made by President Trump.
And the top Democrat on the House committee, Adam Schiff, told NPR’s All Things Considered “there’s no evidence” to support Trump’s claim.
Trump alleged that his predecessor, President Barack Obama, tapped his phone at Trump Tower in a pair of tweets earlier this month.
Trump has not produced any evidence to back his assertion.
The President who actively wants to make Climate Change worse has ordered a review of fuel economy standards, because I guess they are too strict when your goal is use the climate to destroy the planet (I cannot confirm or deny the conspiracy levels of that statement)…
From Reuters…
President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered a review of tough U.S. vehicle fuel-efficiency standards put in place by the Obama administration, handing a victory to auto industry executives and provoking criticism from Democrats and environmental groups.
In a move widely seen as a preamble to loosening fuel standards, Trump told an audience of cheering union workers, he would “ensure that any regulations we have protect and defend your jobs, your factories,” and promised he would encourage growth in the U.S. auto sector.
“The assault on the American auto industry is over,” Trump said, standing in front of a banner that read “Buy American-Hire American.”
Trump added that the White House is “setting up a task force in every federal agency to identify and remove any regulation that undermines American auto production.”
Remember how Rachel Maddow had a couple pages from Tax-Dodger-in-Chief’s 2005 tax returns, and talked about it on her show?
This is also “fake news”… according to the aforementioned Wannabe Tan Ruler, anyways… (from the New York Times)
President Trump on Wednesday denounced as “fake news” the release by journalists of a portion of his 2005 income tax form, just hours after his administration appeared to confirm the accuracy of the documents.
Two pages from the president’s 2005 tax returns were disclosed Tuesday evening by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow after being mailed to David Cay Johnston, a former New York Times reporter. They show that Mr. Trump paid $38 million in federal income taxes on reported income of $150 million, an effective tax rate of 25 percent.
More infuriating shit from, of all places, Bloomberg…
President Donald Trump is set to sign a sweeping directive to dramatically shrink the role climate change plays in decisions across the government, ranging from appliance standards to pipeline approvals, according to a person familiar with the administration’s plan.
The order, which could be signed this week, goes far beyond a targeted assault on Obama-era measures blocking coal leasing and throttling greenhouse gas emissions from power plants that has been discussed for weeks. Some of the changes could happen immediately; others could take years to implement.
Not to say that previous administrations didn’t do their damndest to find ways to murder civilians, but this takes it to a level that (and I’m sure this will surprise y’all, as it certainly surprised me) hasn’t been seen since Bush II at the latest…
From the New York Times…
The Trump administration is exploring how to dismantle or bypass Obama-era constraints intended to prevent civilian deaths from drone attacks, commando raids and other counterterrorism missions outside conventional war zones like Afghanistan and Iraq, according to officials familiar with internal deliberations.
Already, President Trump has granted a Pentagon request to declare parts of three provinces of Yemen to be an “area of active hostilities” where looser battlefield rules apply. That opened the door to a Special Operations raid in late January in which several civilians were killed, as well as to the largest-ever series of American airstrikes targeting Yemen-based Qaeda militants, starting nearly two weeks ago, the officials said.
Mr. Trump is also expected to sign off soon on a similar Pentagon proposal to designate parts of Somalia to be another such battlefield-style zone for 180 days, removing constraints on airstrikes and raids targeting people suspected of being militants with the Qaeda-linked group the Shabab, they said.
From the Washington Post…
President Trump’s budget proposal this week would shake the federal government to its core if enacted, culling back numerous programs and expediting a historic contraction of the federal workforce.
This would be the first time the government has executed cuts of this magnitude — and all at once — since the drawdown following World War II, economists and budget analysts said.
The spending budget Trump is set to release Thursday will offer the clearest snapshot of his vision for the size and role of government. Aides say that the president sees a new Washington emerging from the budget process, one that prioritizes the military and homeland security while slashing many other areas, including housing, foreign assistance, environmental programs, public broadcasting and research. Simply put, government would be smaller and less involved in regulating life in America, with private companies and states playing a much bigger role.
From the New York Times…
At the State Department, the normally pulsating hub of executive offices is hushed and virtually empty. At the Pentagon, military missions in some of the world’s most troubled places are being run by a defense secretary who has none of his top team in place. And at departments like Treasury, Commerce and Health and Human Services, many senior posts remain vacant even as the agencies have been handed enormous tasks like remaking the nation’s health insurance system.
From the moment he was sworn in, President Trump faced a personnel crisis, starting virtually from scratch in lining up senior leaders for his administration. Seven weeks into the job, he is still hobbled by the slow start, months behind where experts in both parties, even some inside his administration, say he should be.