The “budget lite” that our 45th president submitted is described as a “budget blueprint to make America Great Again.” Submitted in the third week of March, it trumpets draconian cuts in many federal programs, eliminating some that provide important services, including the African Development Foundation, the Corporation for National and Community Service, the Inter-American Foundation, the US Trade and Development Agency, the Legal Services Corporation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and many others. The cuts are so unfathomable, and so extremely severe, that even some of 45’s allies are biting back.
Category: Opinion
Practical Politics
With them just coming back to take up a new private residency in Washington, D.C., from vacationing in the Caribbean, it is interesting to imagine a morning conversation this week between Michelle Obama and her husband.
Michelle: Now Barack, I’ve lived every minute of the joys and heartaches of your being president. But that’s over now…
An attack on education
The effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Health Care Act is generating headlines, and the attempt to investigate our 45th president’s Russia connections is of high importance. The specious claim that President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower, too, has generated interest, largely because it is unprecedented for one president to accuse another of a felony, and because 45 has absolutely no proof that President Obama has done any such thing. While President Obama, with a multimillion dollar book deal tucked into his pocket, is living his life like its golden, 45 has indulged in several public tantrums, with episodic moments of calm. Too many of us have been riveted to the drama, while there is a more quiet revolution happening in Congress, with the approval of the White House.
Trump’s budget cuts hurt the same people that voted for him
If you happened to have voted for the man who now occupies the White House, you may be feeling bamboozled, right about now. The man who said that he wanted to take care of the little people, those who were forgotten by the elites, now wants to cut programs that affect these working-class people, ranging from Legal Aid to Meals on Wheels to housing assistance to job training. He would cut the Environmental Protection Agency by more than 31 percent, leaving more than 3000 workers in the cold. Many of his other budget provisions will call for federal reductions-in-force (RIFs), and these chaotic RIFs may cause instability in some government agencies, since workers can appeal their RIF, or bump other workers out of their jobs.
Practical Politics
Although it is far too soon to do a definitive assessment of where former President Barack Obama ranks among the 43 presidents that came before him, the assessments have begun nevertheless. Most usually, such rankings need time, like fine wine and aged liquor, to season and mellow.
Based on a C-SPAN survey just completed from 93 American historians and presidential biographers, President Obama, overall, ranked number 12 among the U.S. presidents, three spaces above Bill Clinton, who ranked number 15. The only modern president ranked above Obama’s number 12 was Ronald Reagan at number 9.
Educating “45” and “One-Note Betsy” on HBCUs
Eighty HBCU presidents did a “fly-in” to the White House in a meeting organized by Trump whisperer Omarosa, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), and others. There was a White House meeting, a meeting at the Library of Congress, and more buzz than 20 beehives. People were prepped to hear that the White House Initiative for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) would move from the Department of Education to the White House and that this would have an impact on the resources HBCUs would receive from this president’s budget.
Practical Politics
During annual Black History Month celebrations, we usually focus on African Americans who have come before and who have done things, or said things that moved the quality of Black life forward. Mostly, as the name says (his-story), we have not often enough focused on what African American women have done. That is not intrinsically bad, but it is a fact.
This column this week will focus on Sarah Breedlove, a.k.a. Madame C.J. Walker, America’s first Black female millionaire. We’ve long praised her financial and entrepreneurial genius, but we have only rarely talked about her Black activism.
Pathfinders for Black History Month
I love Black History, and so revel in Black History Month. Not that Black History should be constrained to a month. Indeed, when I wrote my book “Surviving and Thriving: 365 Facts in Black Economic History” in 2010, I hoped that some folks would touch the book each day and talk about the many ways African American people have shaped our nation’s economic life, from building this country, to being the basis of our bond system. Despite my work, and that of others, Black History Month celebrations seem to center on the men in our history, and on the familiar names.
President Trump needs to tweet about the solar panel industry
As a progressive who worked hard to help get Secretary Hillary Clinton elected, it is challenging for me to accept Donald Trump as President. But, he won. At least for now, I have to make the best of a bad situation. Which means progressives like me will have to both resist the Trump administration’s odious policies, and also pressure — and even cooperate with — the administration to implement policies that reflect our worldview.
The grit and grace of Corretta King
Every day that he holds the presidency, Donald Trump does something outrageous. He blusters, he just plain lies, and he bullies. He pushes his decisions, his executive orders, down the throats of a Congress that he dominates. Why not let the democratic process work and let them vote to build a wall and pay for it, instead of insisting, by executive order, that the wall will be built. In just one short week as president, Trump has demeaned our democracy and our voters, caused international turmoil, and more. But he is doing exactly what he said he would do.
