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With the need and value of truth itself under assault by our own President, knowing, facts can come in handy when his defenders disregard truth just as he does. I hope the information below will be useful. (Correction made: figures for federal budget are “trillions,” not “billion.” As former GOP Senator Everett Dirksen used to say, “A trillion here, a trillion there, pretty soon we’re talking about real money.”)

It’s still about the children:
The government says an estimated 500 children were reunited with their families while in the custody of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, but thousands – yes, thousands – have not been united, and the Department of Health and Human Services has no plan in place to do so.

There was NO forced family separation policy until this past spring when Trump instituted it. None. Nada.

140,000 more individuals and families left the U.S. from 2009-2014 than tried to enter (Pew Research Center), so when Trump took office illegal immigration was already in decline. The “crisis” he talks about is propaganda intended to feed his base.

Budget Matters:
– The national debt in early 2018 exceeded $20 trillion. The debt is the amount of money our government borrows in order to pay its bills.

– Because of the 2017 tax cut, the national deficit (difference between income and expenses on a yearly basis) will increase by a trillion dollars in 2019.

– The annual federal budget includes non-discretionary spending (such as Social Security, Medicare,) of approximately $2.5 Trillion and discretionary spending (General Fund) of approximately $1.5 trillion proposed by the President and approved, changed, or rejected by Congress.

– The largest percentage of discretionary spending (General Fund) goes for military expenditures, some 54%.

– Trump’s 2019 budget proposal includes a huge increase in military spending and huge cuts in Children’s Health Insurance Program and the federal governments part of Medicaid funding.

Social Security & Medicare
– Medicaid is a mandated entitlement program jointly funded by the federal government and states. The federal government pays states for a specified percentage of program expenditures, called the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP)

– Social Security is a non-entitlement program established in 1939 with its own Trust Fund financed by the FICA payroll taxes. Social Security is NOT part of the General Fund budget.

– When Republicans speak of a Social Security funding crisis, they are referring to money Congress owes the Social Security Trust Fund because it borrowed it to use for the general budget funding of the military and cabinet departments.

– Medicare is not an entitlement program nor part of the regular general budget, but is funded by two trust funds held by the U.S. Treasury. These funds can only be used for Medicare.

Food Stamps:
– Of the more than 115,831,000 households in the country, approximately 22,867,248 of them receive food stamps, or less than 2%. The SNAP program as it is called costs $80,000 billion a year, which is also about 2% of the discretionary federal budget.

The Economy:
– When President Obama took office, the unemployment rate was growing rapidly because of the Great Recession and reached a peak of 9.6%. It was 4.8% when he left office.

-When Trump took office the unemployment rate was 4.8%. It is now 3.9%, a change of less than 1%.

During the worst of the Great Recession, the stock market hit a low of 6,547 points. When Obama left office it had risen to 19,827.3. Under Trump it has gone from 19,827.3 to today’s figure of 25,075.1. In other words, the market gained 13,280 points under Obama, and so far a mere 5,248 points under Trump.

The market has done well under almost every president in recent years except George W. Bush. It gained a total of 149 % under Obama, 135 % under Reagan, 45% under George H.W. Bush, and 227% under Bill Clinton. It lost 25% under George W. Bush.

Promoting Prejudice:
– Sharia Law poses a threat to American cities. These facts expose this claim for prompting anti-Muslim prejudice as it does. The U.S. has 326 million people, of which there are 1.9 million Muslims (about .006%), while there are 230 million Christians (or about 70%).

– Crimes rates among legal and illegal immigrants are lower than Americans (read “white”) born here.

– Of all the federal judges Trump has nominated thus far, 75% of have been male and 90% have been white.

I could go on, but it would take pages to present facts that contradict most of what Trump says and all of what his supporters believe. But these are a start.