Trump just cut budget for food for 2.4 million poor Americans. He spends that much per week when he goes to Mar-a-Lago.
Donald Trump could reverse cuts to arts, poor and elderly if he stopped staying at Mar-a-Lago, figures show
Four services facing elimination under proposed cuts could be maintained at the cost of President's visits to private Florida resort over four years, figures show
independent.co.uk
Donald Trump could reverse his recently announced cuts to arts, poor and elderly services if he cut his trips to Mar-a-Lago and lived permanently in White House instead, figures indicate.
Calculations show four programmes that face elimination - which tackle homelessness, unemployment among over-55s, participation in the arts and helping the poor access higher education - could be maintained at the cost of the President’s trips to his private Florida resort over the course of four years.
The services amount to a total of $597 million — just less than the $600 million security arrangements for the Mr Trump's Mar-a-Lago visits are estimated to cost the taxpayer over the course of his term.
The National Endowment for the Arts, which encourages participation in the arts ($152 million), the US Interagency Council on Homelessness ($4 million), an independent agency coordinating the federal government's efforts to reduce homelessness, the Senior Community Service Employment Program ($434 million), which has helped more than one million people 55 and older find jobs and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars ($11 million), providing scholarships and fellowships in social sciences and humanities, are all facing the axe in Mr Trump's budget.
This amounts to a total of $597 million (£483 million). According to CBS News, the President spent every weekend of his first 33 days in office at the Palm Beach estate - for which security is estimated to have cost $10 million (£8.1 million).
American taxpayers must foot a bill of more than $3 million (£2.4 million) each time he travels there, rather than staying at the official presidential residence of the White House — amounting to $600 million over the four years.
The services are among hundreds of programmes and agencies the budget proposed would be eliminated to pave the way for a $54 billion (£44 billion) increase in defence spending.
The $1.15 trillion (£1 trillion) budget – titled 'America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again' — which covered only discretionary, not mandatory, spending — also stated plans to slash funding for Meals on Wheels, a program that provides meals for the poor, elderly and veterans, as well as health care and nutrition for low-income women, infants and children. |
