Trump Will Gut Environmental Protections To Fund Unnecessary Increase In Defense Spending

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In order to fund an unnecessary $54 billion increase in U.S. defense spending, Donald Trump is taking a sledgehammer to the Environmental Protection Agency, including protections enacted by former President Barack Obama.

According to Politico, “The White House has proposed slashing EPA’s budget by about a quarter and eventually eliminating 1 in 5 of the agency’s workers, according to sources familiar with the budget proposal sent to EPA on Monday.”

The administration also plans to go after EPA climate programs put into place during Obama’s time in the White House. Trump has already repealed a rule put in place by the previous administration that prevented coal companies from dumping their waste into nearby bodies of water.

More from Politico on Trump’s historic cuts:

That budget proposal would set EPA’s budget at $6.1 billion, down from its current level of $8.1 billion, according to two sources outside the agency. EPA’s budget hasn’t been that low since 1991, according to agency records. One of those sources also said that the White House has proposed reducing EPA’s 15,000-strong workforce to 12,000, a level not seen since the mid-1980s.

The Trump administration’s assault on the environment is helping to fund an unnecessary spending boost for the Pentagon, which has said in recent years that it doesn’t need more money. Not to mention the fact that the United States military budget is bigger than that of the next seven nations combined – and we are no longer mired in two ground wars in the Middle East.

Once again, though, Trump is proposing a solution (more military spending) to a problem that does not exist (a depleted and underfunded U.S. military), simply because he thinks it makes him look tough and his supporters like it.

But it doesn’t make any sense on paper, and the rest of the budget – much of which is in more need of spending increases – will suffer as a result.

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Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.

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