Donald Trump’s inane and callous, defense-forward, everything-else-backward budget is, as the New York Times reported yesterday, even being opposed by a number of Republican governors, who fear for what it’ll do to their states. “[Governors] have complained to the White House about reductions they see as harmful or arbitrary, and they plan to pressure members of Congress from their states to oppose them,” the paper wrote. Last night, Samantha Bee focused one of her segments on Trump’s budget that’d increase defense, while stripping it of so much of what’s worthy of defending — a plan that’s been met with noteworthy disapproval even within the GOP. Last week, the Washington Post wrote:
The bad mood among Republican critics was tempered by a consensus that the president’s budget wasn’t going very far on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers reminded everybody that they ultimately control the nation’s purse strings.
Of course, none of this is a reason to get smug, and people who care about… not hindering or totally paralyzing the country’s abilities to even remotely consider climate change, provide safe drinking water, fund the arts and public broadcasting, give meals to the elderly, help minority-owned businesses grow, help students with learning disabilities with their reading skills, provide provide alternative energy research, provide affordable housing, provide humanitarian aid for emergency refugee/migration needs, etc. etc. etc. should continue to fear and disdain — and call their representatives out of fear and disdain for — Trump’s budget proposal. But while doing that, it can also be fun to hear biting comedians rant about its awfulness.
In response to Republican Senator Lindsey Graham saying the budget would be a “disaster,” Bee played a (very) sarcastic devil’s advocate, saying, “Oh, now be fair. Distilling Donald Trump’s spittle-flecked campaign jeremiads and incoherent revenge fantasies into policy isn’t an exact science, and if it were an exact science this budget would defund it.” Here, she’s of course referencing the budget plan’s aim to defund the Environmental Protection Agency by 30%.
She continues, with the help of some amusing imagery:
“This kind of looks like when an insecure guy tries to make his penis look bigger by shaving down everything else around it, and if you don’t buy my dick metaphor, here’s how Trump’s budget director Mick Mulvaney describes the plan,” she says, before cutting to: “This is a hard power budget,” “this is a hard power budget,” “this is a hard power budget,” “this is a hard power budget.” Of course, “overcompensating” jokes are pretty easy, but then again, Trump is a walking overcompensation joke who’s translated his trademark male ego hyperbole into politics — and shown just how horrifying it is.
Watch the segment: