Dan Rather: ‘People will die’ because of Donald Trump’s budget

U.S. President Donald Trump‘s upcoming budget isn’t a budget at all, veteran broadcast journalist Dan Rather wrote on Facebook Thursday.

It’s a philosophy, and one that will hurt the people who supported Trump in “real ways.” People will “suffer” and “die” because of it, he wrote.

Rather takes exception with numerous items in Trump’s budget, which was to be submitted to Congress on Thursday.

But he reserved his strongest words for cuts to scientific research.

Trump’s budget proposes slashing spending on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by $5.8 billion to $25.9 billion — a reduction of just under one-fifth.

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It’s a move that could stymie biomedical research and “stagger academic institutions around the country that depend on NIH grant money to keep their scientific research programs afloat,” health news site STAT reported.

“Diseases will spread, and cures will not be found,” Rather said. “Our nation will be darker and more dangerous.”

READ MORE: Donald Trump’s first budget boosts military, slashes domestic programs

But that wasn’t all that Rather focused on.

He referenced environmental cuts, such as a 25-per-cent reduction in spending on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and discontinued funding for climate change plans.

He also talked about cuts to the arts, which could include the elimination of cultural bodies such as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), according to The Washington Post.

“This is a philosophy that doesn’t believe in helping the poor, rural or urban, or the power of diplomacy or the importance of science,” Rather wrote.

“It is a philosophy that doesn’t want to protect the environment. It doesn’t believe in the arts.

“This is about putting a noose around much of the United States federal government and hanging it until it shakes with life no more.”

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But Rather isn’t the only one to express concern about Trump’s budget.

The Sesame Workshop, the educational organization that produces Sesame Street, issued a statement Thursday standing up for the “vital public investment” that has allowed them to help “less privileged kids gain access to preschool education.”

It noted, however, that the Sesame Workshop currently doesn’t receive any direct funding from the CPB.

Rather completed his missive with a note of optimism, however.

“Mr. Trump’s philosophy is an opening salvo in a battle for the soul of America that is only beginning,” he wrote.

“But I think it is winnable and America will reconfirm a governing philosophy that is hopeful, compassionate, and wise about the role of government in making our world a safer, fairer, and more just place to live.”