Arnold Schwarzenegger Calls Out Donald Trump For After-School Funding Cuts In 2020 Budget
Arnold Schwarzenegger took to Twitter to call out President Donald Trump on the new 2020 budget just released by the administration, taking him to task for giving the wealthy massive tax cuts while cutting after-school programs for children. In a short video uploaded to his Twitter feed Tuesday afternoon, the actor and former California governor accused the president of costing regular taxpayers half a trillion dollars a year while at the same time depriving kids of vital programs.
“President Trump, I have a question,” Schwarzenegger begins.
“Why do you take $1.3 billion from after-school programs in your 2020 budget, when you go and do tax reforms which are going to cost the taxpayers $500 billion a year?”
The Terminator actor’s video was not the first critique that has been offered of the president’s new budget. Democratic lawmakers have sharply criticized the document, with some calling it “dead on arrival,” for starters because it is seeking over $8 billion for Trump’s long-promised border wall. It was only a few weeks ago that Trump’s request of $5 billion for the wall was roundly rejected by House Democrats. That led to an impasse that shut down the government for over 30 days, not only costing the economy billions but also putting thousands of individual households in dire circumstances as families with breadwinners employed by the Federal government went for weeks without one or more paychecks.
President @realDonaldTrump, we need to talk about your decision to cut after-school programs from the budget. pic.twitter.com/KdQAoZ0Fvm
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) March 12, 2019
Schwarzenegger continued, taking a swipe at one of Trump’s business enterprises that ended up in multiple lawsuits.
“Why give [money] to the rich folks and take it away from the poor little kids? It doesn’t make any sense. Maybe that’s what you did at Trump University…but that doesn’t make any sense normally.”
Schwarzenegger’s video isn’t the first time the two former hosts of Celebrity Apprentice have squabbled publicly. Back in 2017, the president took time out of his day as leader of the free world to tweet at Schwarzenegger to taunt him about his low ratings on the program. Schwarzenegger responded then with another video.
“Hey Donald, I have a great idea — why don’t we switch jobs? You take over TV, because you’re such an expert in ratings, and I take over your job. That way people can finally sleep comfortably again,” he said in 2017.
With regard to the budget that was just released, even The Washington Post led their analysis of the document by stating that it “basically has no chance of getting enacted.” In addition to cutting funding for after-school programs referenced by Schwarzenegger, the budget also seeks to give the Pentagon and military spending a 5 percent across-the-board increase, while cutting funding for a number of agencies and programs. It proposes budget cuts of nearly a third each for the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers and other massive cuts to a myriad of other agencies.
