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Trump's budget hurts public health, environment

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle - 6/21/2017

Not surprisingly, Trump’s new budget proposal places a low priority on public health. The White House stated that the $2.6 billion of funding that would be taken away from the EPA (a 31.4 percent cut) would come from initiatives to protect air and water, combat climate change, research environmental issues, and clean up industrial waste.

In total, 50 programs would be cut from the agency along with 3,200 of its 15,00 jobs. In order to fire this many people, Trump is calling for $12 million of spending. In other words, Trump would rather spend money taking away jobs than protecting our environment. The only people to win from such a budget are the ultra-rich oil and gas companies that have been lobbying for fewer environmental regulations for the sake of profit.

Although Trump likes to play up his persona as an outsider who is not in the pocket of lobbyists, he raised $3 million from corporate polluters during his campaign, and is now showing that his loyalty can be bought. Even members of his own party know that slashing the EPA budget is a bad idea; Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) and Rep. Scott Taylor (R-VA) have spoken out against the budget for neglecting the importance of environmental regulations.

In the public at large, policies that aim to reduce effects of climate change have majority support. 61 percent of voters disapprove of Trump’s environmental policies and 72 percent disapprove of cutting funds for climate change research and education. We in the majority cannot stand by as the oil and gas profiteers drown out our voices; I for one will be flooding Daines’ and Testers’ offices with letters until this budget is dead.