March 15-20, 2017: Trump Administration Cuts EPA Funding - Campaign May Have Had Contacts with Russians

 

3/15/17: The Trump administration proposes a 31% cut to funding for the Environmental Protection Agency, because climate change is a hoax, no one cares about clean water except poor people in Flint, Michigan, and living near one of 1,800 Superfund cleanup sites is kind of exciting if you think about it. 

Who created almost every one of those 1,800 toxic sites? Businesspeople. And that’s why government regulations are always bad! 

ISIS might not get you if the budget for defense increases by $54 billion, as Republicans now propose. 

Water from your tap might.

Thirst quenching!

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3/16/17: The administration releases what is known as a “skinny budget,” with details to be fleshed out with Congress. The Department of Health and Human Services is scheduled for an 18% cut. The National Institutes of Health would see a decline in funding of $5.8 billion. The budget would cut grants to assist poor people, including a decades-old Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. That initiative helps needy Americans with heating bills. 

Why do poor people need heat anyway? 

We’ve got global warming. 

(Remember that budget cut for NIH, once the pandemic hits three years later.)

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3/17/17: Trump continues to claim he was wiretapped. Leaders of both parties in Congress say there’s no evidence. 

“No such wiretap existed,” Speaker Ryan tells reporters. Press Secretary Spicer says the president stands by his claim. It’s “what he believes.” 

Kind of like a child who believes he saw the Easter Bunny. 

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3/18/17: Even Speaker Ryan’s mother calls his healthcare replacement plan “garbage.” 

(Okay, I made that up.) 

Actually, 17% of Americans approve.

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3/19/17: In a Gallup poll, Trump scores a 37% job approval rating. No president has ever dropped so low so quickly.

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3/20/17: Trump says everything involving Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election is “fake news.” 

F.B.I. Director James Comey informs Congress a day later that there is an investigation going on. This includes looking for “any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.” 

There may not be links but the fact the F.B.I. is following various leads is not “fake news.” (See: 3/23/17.)