When it comes to President Donald Trump’s federal budget proposal, University of Colorado Denver economics professor Andrew Friedson says there are some definite strong winners and losers.
“It’s a pretty crazy budget,” Dr. Friedsen told Anne Trujillo on this weekend’s Politics Unplugged. “It’s a gigantic departure from everything we’ve seen probably over the last two presidents if not further back.”
Among the winners Friedsen sees the military, big business and people with incomes that already put them in the top income bracket.
“The one tax reform bone that’s thrown to the middle and everyone else is a slight increase in the standard deduction,” Friedson said. “This will put about $1,000 back in everybody’s pocket, but the rest of the budget in term of the tax reform is all put on the hyper wealthy and when we’re talking about the hyper wealthy we’re talking about reform to things like the alternative minimum tax which is paid by less than 1 percent of the population.”
The losers? The poor, the disabled and states like Colorado which will see cuts in federal funding.
“Effectively what the federal government is trying to do is wash their hands of the Medicaid program completely,” Friedson said. “What’s been done with Medicaid is the amount of federal dollars is going to be fixed and then states are on their own to figure out what to do.”
For a longer list of programs that will see more/less funding under the president’s proposal, visit Military wins, but poor and disabled are big losers in Trump's budget on TheDenverChannel.com.
Politics Unplugged airs Sundays at 4:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Denver7.