written by Marty Embry
I recently posted Trumps ridiculous budget. The one thing that I'm grateful for is understanding how budgets work and I enjoy breaking them down. Since I posted Trump's "trying to be approved budget", I thought that I'd share with you all what I've found.
This is Trump's 2027 Budget proposal. The good, the bad, and the ugly of it. The Trump administration recently released its fiscal year 2027 budget on April 3rd, and every working-class American needs to understand exactly what is in it. I mean Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Why? Because it is not just numbers on a page. It is a declaration of values. And those values are not yours.
Let's be honest about all of it. The confirmed facts were the easiest to find. Trump submitted his budget request to Congress, calling for historic cuts to domestic funding and shifting that money toward historic increases in the military budget. Overall, the administration is proposing a 10% cut to non-defense discretionary spending, which is a $73 billion reduction. Non-defense discretionary funding would be cut to its lowest levels as a percentage of GDP since, at least, the Eisenhower administration. In contrast, this budget calls for the biggest annual increase in the military budget as a share of GDP outside of a ground war in U.S. history.
The good, ok I'll be fair. There are two things in this budget worth acknowledging. The proposal includes a pay raise for military personnel of between 5 and 7 percent depending on rank, and our troops truly deserve to be paid well. The budget also increases investment in Pell Grants for low-income college students, which is genuinely helpful for some working-class families trying to access higher education. Those two items are real. Everything else that follows is why they don't come close to balancing the scales.
The bad of the budget, the science, health, and the environment is totally gutted. The cuts to science and public health are sweeping, real, and insanely dangerous. The White House proposal would chop $4.6 billion from the EPA's budget, and that's down about down 52%, which is the lowest level since the Reagan administration in the 1980s. The EPA's environmental justice programs would be fully eliminated, along with the atmospheric-protection program.
The National Science Foundation would be slashed by 54.5%, from $8.8 billion down to $4 billion, and that would essentially cripple America's global scientific competitiveness for a generation.
The budget proposes $5.5 billion for the CDC, which is a $3 billion cut, and it eliminates the Prevention and Public Health Fund entirely, which provided $1.4 billion in funding across various CDC programs in fiscal year 2026. HIV/AIDS activities, chronic disease prevention, injury prevention, birth defects programs, all of it is cut to the bone.
Congress rejected most of these science and health cuts for fiscal year 2026. The American Association for the Advancement of Science called the proposed cuts a threat to U.S. global competitiveness and they are 100% correct. The fight now moves to fiscal year 2027 and the pressure on Congress must be relentless.
And yet, here's the ugly. Working class America is left to fend for itself. Yes, you. Me. Us!Working class America is you, Democrats, Republicans, Independents and Liberals. This is where the budget reveals its true character.
Community Services Block Grants, which help more than 10 million people annually, would be eliminated entirely. The WIC fruit and vegetable benefit would be cut by $1.4 billion, reducing the monthly benefit from $54 to just $13 for breastfeeding mothers and from $27 to $10 for young children. Yea, you read that right!
LIHEAP, which is the program that helps struggling families heat their homes in winter and cool them in summer, will be eliminated entirely. The HOME Investment Partnerships Program, which funds low-income housing construction and assistance, POOF, is gone.
On education, the budget zeros out all grant programs supporting MINORITY SERVING INSTITUTIONS and would eliminate the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education. Let that sink in. Those are HBCUs.
The Office for Civil Rights would be cut 35%, from 530 full-time employees down to 271. For HBCUs and the communities that depend on them, this is targeted harm dressed up in budget language.
The military buildup driving all of this includes $65.8 billion for shipbuilding, (which I have no doubt that Trump will push for one to be named the USS Donald Trump), but that's a 46% increase, to fund 24 additional naval ships and provide initial funding for two "Trump-class" battleships.
Trump's narrative is this cost cutting budget will save America billions of dollars. The reality is that the money really isn't being saved. It is being transferred or reallocated from your children's schools, your family's health care, your community's water, your grandmother's heating bill, into the accounts of defense contractors and arms dealers; a war chest.
One of my friends said that eliminating job corps was necessary because it helps more illegals that American people, which I absolutely disagree with. I will say that better oversight must be put in place to limit financial losses though.
The elimination of Job Corps is a targeted attack on America's most vulnerable youth. Of all the cuts in this budget, the full elimination of Job Corps may be the most revealing about who this administration has decided to abandon. Prove me wrong!
Job Corps is the largest nationwide residential career training program in the country. The program helps eligible young people ages 16 through 24 complete their high school education, trains them for meaningful careers, and assists them with obtaining employment. This is not a bureaucratic abstraction. This is a lifeline.
Job Corps is a voluntary residential program specifically for low-income U.S. residents aged 16–24 who are high school dropouts and/or in need of additional education and training to gain employment. Through year-round residential classroom and work-based learning, Job Corps participants earn a high school diploma or GED credential and receive career training in fields such as business, health, construction, technology, mechanics, and culinary arts. I've seen it help countless disadvantaged students, who many go on to lead very productive lives and credits it all to Job Corps.
These are not lazy young people. These are kids who were failed by underfunded schools, broken neighborhoods, and an economy that offered them very little. Job Corps meets them where they are and gives them a real path forward, including residential support, comprehensive health services, counseling, and job placement assistance. For many of these young people, that residential component is not a luxury. It is the only stable housing they have.
Trump nor his administration has never set foot in those facilities. They've never spoken to the students or teachers regarding how Job Corps makes a difference in those students lives. And quite frankly, they could care less.
The program is specifically designed to serve disadvantaged youth aged sixteen to twenty-four, with a significant portion coming from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds. Have you seen any of the current administration in any low income area lately?
Since its inception in 1964, over two million participants have gone through the program. Approximately 75 percent of participants found employment, pursued further education, or joined the military.
And the research is clear. Mathematica, one of the most respected policy research organizations in the country, concluded that Job Corps is the only federal training program shown to increase earnings for this disadvantaged youth population. That is not a talking point. That is a peer-reviewed, randomized controlled trial finding from the U.S. Department of Labor's own commissioned research. But Trump or his administration would never share that information.
When the Trump administration moved to pause Job Corps operations in May 2025, the decision drew bipartisan pushback, with supporters highlighting its role in training 50,000 low-income youth each year. Now they want to eliminate it entirely, not reform it, not restructure it. Not fix any proven issues. They want it eliminated. Gone.
Think about what that means in cities like Flint. In the South Side of Chicago. In rural Appalachia. In every corner of this country where young people are trying to climb out of poverty with nothing but their will and nowhere to turn. Job Corps was the door. This budget nails it shut.
This is not a budget for America or Americans. It is a statement of abandonment. The people who clean the offices, work the warehouses, raise the children, and hold this country together are being told, in the clearest possible language, that they are on their own.
Meanwhile, the bill for two "Trump-class" battleships is already in the mail. Congress rejected most of these cuts for fiscal year 2026. They can do it again. But only if we make enough noise that they have no other choice.
Please, share this information. Talk about it. Call your representatives. The people who built this country deserve better than this. We deserve better than this. You don't know what you don't know until you know. Now, you know.
Sources:
Federal News Network, Center for American Progress, Chemical & Engineering News, Education Week, Inside Higher Ed, Axios, ASTHO, U.S. Department of Labor, Mathematica Policy Research, Britannica, Wikipedia, Job Corps
