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[smjjames]

That increase in defense spending scares and frustrates me.

Scares me in that, does Trump think we can just, invade another power player? Does he know that WMD's exist? This man who can't find his ass with two hands is drafting national policy awww fuck

It frustrates me because god dammit of course. this man makes policy decisions like first graders decide what to eat. of course we wouldn't work on trying to make the military more efficient, no just throw more money let's see where this god damn rabbit hole goes. Oh but where does the money come from? "Well i read in this Orson Scott Card book one time that people don't like it when you fuck with medicaid and social security, so, uh, cut money from everything but that."

ugh

Per his words, he wants to bring the military back to where it was before the budget cuts, which is part of the reason. He hasn't said anything about invading anybody, just rebuilding the military.

You're missing one important part though, it's a preliminary proposal where he wants to increase defense spending by 54 billion while doing cuts most everywhere that would equal the same amount in total. He hasn't really said much about what he wants to cut, other than Foreign Aid, but that is only like 1% of the entire budget. Though it sounds like he means 'cuts from everything else'. edit2: Actually, one of the politico articles says that Trump plans to cut funding from the EPA, State Department, and safety net programs.

Politico article, second Politico article.

He's supposedly going to give more information in his joint session of Congress speech.

Also, BTW, guess what's coming in March 16th, the debt ceiling limit, hell of a time to dump budget talks onto Congress over two weeks from that deadline.

Also2, his vagueness is going to set up a massive fight in Congress as they figure out what they want to cut, what they don't want to cut, and what the President does and doesn't want to cut.

[Neonivek]

Someone suggested that the reason Trump acts like a Bafoon is two fold

1) Because it makes the Media concentrate on really stupid crud... while Trump sneaks even worse things in the background (Like the change to gun laws)
2) Because he knows he is going to be caught soon, and is trying to put the American people on his side in advance. "News is fake!"

[smjjames]

The thing with guns and mentally ill was Congress doing that, not Trump.

[Neonivek]

The thing with guns and mentally ill was Congress doing that, not Trump.

Yeah but who says Trump couldn't smokescreen for Congress?

[misko27]

Americans overseas aren't proper Americans.

 

You knew the risks when you took the job.

Someone suggested that the reason Trump acts like a Bafoon is two fold

One: That is not how you spell buffoon. That is an egregious and unconscionable level of misspelling for a person with an internet connection. And capitalized, too?!?

Two: did he just start now, or has he been acting like this since day 1? I'm pretty sure it's the latter.

[PTTG??]

The thing with guns and mentally ill was Congress doing that, not Trump.

Yeah but who says Trump couldn't smokescreen for Congress?

It's just all smoke, because everything is on fire.

[sluissa]

The thing with guns and mentally ill was Congress doing that, not Trump.

Yeah but who says Trump couldn't smokescreen for Congress?

Trump is smoke screening for congress, but I don't think he's doing it consciously. I think congress is just taking advantage of the distraction while everyone is paying attention to him.

[Sergarr]

, does Trump think we can just, invade another power player?

That's what Putin apparently thinks, yes, given how much noise he makes every time NATO puts some of its troops closer to Russian border (even if they're more than a thousand km away from it). I guess he watched that British "Salami" skit, or some Russian equivalent to it.

[EnigmaticHat]

People have been saying that x is a smokescreen for y for a while now.  They said it when Mike Pence went to Hamilton on the same day Trump settled his university court case for example.

I don't know if I believe any of it any more.  No one is coming out of the first month of Trump's presidency smelling nice.  Not congress, not Trump, not anyone on Trump's staff.  Mike Pence has been doing OK, but that's mainly by being absent from major news stories altogether.  Who is congress trying to smokescreen from?  Ordinary people on the left are stressed out, afraid and angry; their faith in the government is at an all time low.  Thanks to Trump and Spicer's antics, they're being bombarded by "the administration is evil" messages from media that is normally decently center line.  That's bad news for congressional Republicans, nothing gets people out to vote like fear and anger.  Meanwhile they've not got that much to hide from their own base, which at least in theory wants the laws they're trying to push through.

If congressional Republicans really wanted to secure their place they'd clear up all ambiguity about the fate of the ACA, even if that meant launching a message separate from Trump.  Because that's their main PR disaster at this point.  But they're not going to do that, because they aren't geniuses, and they haven't even decided amongst themselves what to do about the ACA.

The people in power aren't playing 4D chess, they're playing football with half a team.

[Neonivek]

So it is more that... Trump is just a natural smokescreen that one would get... if their house was on fire?

[EnigmaticHat]

Yeah.  And they have about as much control over Trump as they would over a burning fire.

[palsch]

You're missing one important part though, it's a preliminary proposal where he wants to increase defense spending by 54 billion while doing cuts most everywhere that would equal the same amount in total. He hasn't really said much about what he wants to cut, other than Foreign Aid, but that is only like 1% of the entire budget. Though it sounds like he means 'cuts from everything else'. edit2: Actually, one of the politico articles says that Trump plans to cut funding from the EPA, State Department, and safety net programs.

EPA budget: $8.3 billion
State budget: $50.1 billion (includes foreign aid)

Even the 30% cut to the EPA is only £15bn. Zeroing out the EPA (which sadly wouldn't surprise me, but isn't expected) would still leave them with ~30bn to give to the military from other areas. That's a lot of free lunches they have to cut (actually 1.5-3x that program depending on which figures I'm seeing are correct).

Of course the budget won't actually be revenue neutral. They are basing it on excessively high growth estimates. I'd be interested to see the reaction when they have to have it scored by the CBO. Waiting to see more of the budget leaked now.


Bush criticises Trump more in one interview than he Obama in eight years.


Spicer coordinated pushback on the Russia story by those who were and are supposed to be investigating the ties.

Who was involved: The officials reached by Spicer were CIA Director Mike Pompeo and Senate Select Intelligence Committee Chair Richard Burr (R-N.C), according to a senior administration official. The reporters were from The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, the official said. Spicer provided reporters' phone numbers to House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who offered to make the calls himself, according to the official: "He was in and out of an event."

Another, related piece on whether Congress can be trusted to investigate the Russian connection.

[Neonivek]

The way this is going it almost makes me think Trump is planning on going to war... or taking over the US.

I mean... increased military spending... slow elimination of the free press... Indoctrination and elimination of dissidents.

That being said... he hasn't increased surveillance on ordinary citizens. So I am not too too worried.

[PTTG??]

The way this is going it almost makes me think Trump is planning on going to war... or taking over the US.

I mean... increased military spending... slow elimination of the free press... Indoctrination and elimination of dissidents.

That being said... he hasn't increased surveillance on ordinary citizens. So I am not too too worried.

Our biggest blessing is that Steve Bannon is a god damned moron, and he's still capable of outsmarting Trump. Or, as Voltaire once said: "I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it."

[Descan]

How can you be sure? I mean, granted, Trump's Administration is basically a colander on account of all those leaks, but Obama's and Bushes expansion of the NSA, wiretapping, the huge fuck-off intelligence datacenter in Nevada, that took a while for it to be leaked. Couple years after they started, IIRC.