The new budget

The President signed a $1.3 trillion spending bill.  It wasn’t a great bill, but:

the “wall” was reduced to 33 miles of fencing.  Mexico isn’t paying.

the proposal by Betsy DeVos to eliminate money for after-school programs for low-income students was rejected.  DeVos’s attempt to cut programs to help low income college students was rejected.  

the EPA budget was not slashed 30% as Trump wanted.  The appropriation is about what it was last year.  

National Endowment for the Arts defunding was not approved.  In fact, the NEA received more money.  

the Inspector General’s office, which is investigating Pruitt’s spending, received the same amount as last year.

the Chesapeake Bay cleanup was funded.

funds for the H.I.V programs in Africa that President Bush started,were kept level.

Trump’s proposal for a $7.5 billion cut to the National Institutes of Health was rejected.

Trump proposed to eliminate the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy that funds research into energy technologies.  Its budget was increased 16%.

All in all, we can live with this.  Evidently the Groper in Chief can also live with it.  After the usual bluster, he did sign it.

(I learned this from Julie Hirschfeld Davis, “A Republican Budget, but Not Exactly What the President Asked For,” New York Times, (March 23, 2018), p.A20.)