Thursday, May 25, 2017

Trump's Great Lakes pro-pollution budgeting would sacrifice these waters

Donald Trump's so-called budget which also reflects Paul Ryan's end to public services would cancel funding for Great Lakes restoration. 

Twenty percent of the world's fresh surface waters are in Lake Michigan, below, and its four sister lakes - - Superior, Huron, Erie and Ontario - - 
which are under major stress from invasive species, manure and chemical runoff and other legacy problems which Trump's budget as proposed would absolutely worsen.

Trump's jargon-addicted budget drafters say state and local governments could pick up the loss of hundreds of millions of federal dollars annually which the Great Lakes and the economies they support need to survive - - 
States may be able to adjust to reduced funding levels by reducing or eliminating additional activities not required under federal law, prioritizing programs and seeking other funding sources, including fees," the budget office's written narrative says.
- - thus displaying Team Trump's abject ignorance about the paper-thin budgeting margins these governments already live with and further ignorance of taxpayer efforts like this at Milwaukee's Bradford Beach and elsewhere along the Lakefront
to keep the Great Lakes clean.

The Trump budget also wipes out a similar clean-up plan for the Chesapeake Bay watershed and cuts the US EPA budget by about one-third.

I guess if you're cutting the Medicaid/health insurance and other social safety net programs, it makes 'logical' sense to cut the environment's safety net programs, too.

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