Trump budget: Morally bankrupt and bad economic policy

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement after President Donald Trump released his budget proposal:

The Trump budget introduced today is morally bankrupt and bad economic policy.

During the campaign, Donald Trump promised that the wealthy would not get a tax break and that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid would not be cut.

But his budget does the exact opposite of what Trump pledged to the American people.

Trump’s budget pays for his huge tax breaks for the rich and large corporations by slashing Medicaid by $1.3 trillion, cutting Medicare by $554 billion and slicing $10 billion from the Social Security Disability Insurance Program.

This budget is nothing less than a major transfer of wealth from the middle class and working families to the top 1 percent and large corporations.

Meanwhile, at a time when the U.S. spends more on defense than the next 12 countries combined, the Trump budget calls for a massive increase in military spending paid for by cutting $57 billion in domestic spending from the bipartisan budget agreement that was signed into law just a few days ago.

This is a budget for the billionaire class, for Wall Street, for corporate CEOs, for defense contractors and for the wealthiest people in this country. It must be defeated.