Raw deal: Compassionate conservatism, Donald Trump style

It is not necessary to get into all the numbers to clearly realize that President Trump believes that the poor have too much and the rich need tax cuts.

Mick Mulvaney, director of Office of Management and Budget, is more than glad to present a budget that hurts those who are labeled unemployed, low-income, or disabled.

Those Americans who are in those categories don’t have high-priced lobbyists to speak for them and lobby on their behalf.

They are vulnerable and powerless so they are easy to be targeted and ignored.

{mosads}This White House wants $1.6 billion for a wall that we were all told we weren’t going to have to pay for and Mexico would. What happened to that?

Trillions of dollars in taxes that the well-off pay would be cut. The estate tax would be eliminated.

But at the same time, the proposed budget would go after food stamps and take $40 billion for tax credits from low-wage workers.

William Hoagland called the budget “one of the more right-wing-type budgets that I’ve ever seen.”

Hoagland is no lefty from some ivory tower think tank. He was former Sen. Bill Frist’s (R-Tenn.) budget director. 

No “do-gooder program” is left untouched, even “Meals on Wheels.”

Compassionate conservative Mulvaney earlier had suggested that this program was ineffective. That went too far even for the Chairman of the Freedom Caucus — Rep. Mark Meadows (N.C.). He rightly said, “I’ve delivered meals to a lot of people that perhaps it’s their only hot meal of the day.”

You just don’t understand this is a budget that appeases and pleases conservatives. It makes conservatives happy. That’s the number one political goal.

You remember the term growing “income inequality.” That’s “so Obama.”

This White House which is so fond of paying attention to those “forgotten Americans” doesn’t mind forgetting those Americans who don’t have much in their wallets or in their bank accounts.

Anyway, all this government aid and help smacks of “redistribution.” And that is to be avoided at all costs. Just mention the word redistribution, it sounds socialistic.

The escalating income disparity between the economically comfortable and those on the edge — that should not be the government’s concern.

And add to all of this, repeal the Affordable Care Act which for the first time ever provided health insurance to millions of Americans.

This is a cruel and heartless budget. It does not represent what this country is about and what it stands for.

One last point to top it off. This budget even goes after poor children — $3.2 billion in cuts.

No one is spared.

Mark Plotkin is a contributor to the BBC on American politics and a columnist for The Georgetowner. Previously, he was the political analyst for WAMU-FM, Washington’s NPR affiliate, where he co-hosted the “D.C. Politics Hour With Mark Plotkin.” He later became the political analyst for WTOP-FM, Washington’s all-news radio station, where he hosted “The Politics Hour With Mark Plotkin.” He is a winner of the Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in writing.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.