Trump’s proposed EPA cuts endanger Florida and the US

President Trump isn’t exactly lauded as a deep thinker. He speaks off the cuff, makes unrealistic promises and tosses around unsubstantiated claims (see: wiretapping).

That’s why it’s chilling to read how his proposed budget, which jacks up military spending by $54 billion and features massive cuts elsewhere, came to light in the first place.

Trump’s budget director, Mick Mulvaney, told reporters that staffers sifted through Trump’s campaign speeches to help create his first budget. “If he said it in the campaign, it’s in the budget,” Mulvaney said. “We wanted to know what his policies were. And we turned those policies into numbers.”

Trump ran on a nationalistic platform that bashed Washington and called for a temporary ban on all Muslims entering the country. He called climate change a “hoax.” He pleaded with the Russians to hack his opponent. He bragged that he’s so popular he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose support.

While he never proved the Fifth Avenue theory, he won the election — and now we’re seeing a ludicrous campaign turn into real policy with real consequences. As Floridians, we should all be sweating.

The worst part of his budget, which still has to be approved by Congress, is the 31 percent cut to the Environmental Protection Agency. Trump and new EPA director Scott Pruitt want to completely gut an agency that is already underfunded. The annual budget would drop from $8.1 billion to $5.7 billion and 3,200 people would lose their jobs — this from a president who bragged about saving 800 jobs at the Carrier plant in Indiana.

Pruitt won’t even acknowledge that climate change is driven by humans, a preposterous stance for someone in his position. Dozens of leading scientists sent a letter this week to Pruitt telling him he’s wrong and his positions are dangerous. Don’t expect it to make a difference.

Just as we were starting to make progress on climate change policy, this administration will set us back decades. The federal government will no longer fund efforts to curb carbon pollution and develop renewable energy technologies.

And then there’s sea levels. Miami is the sixth-most vulnerable city in the world to rising sea levels, according to a Weather Channel report. Tampa is 16th.

The White House wants to cut the EPA’s climate change programs. Among other benefits, it funds grants that help coastal communities protect themselves from rising sea levels. It also funds conservation programs that help states rebound from environmental changes that hurt crops and drinking water.

According to an analysis from Budget Insider, Trump’s proposal would cut funding for EPA enforcement, which would make it much easier for, say, a sewage company to dump raw sewage into a river and not pay the consequences.

The White House also wants to cut the EPA’s regional cleanup programs, like the Great Lakes initiative, which will lead to less research on water contamination.

These aren’t hippie-dippie programs. We’re talking about major environmental concerns, from sea level rise to carbon emission. And the White House wants to eliminate them based on Trump’s campaign speeches and flawed data.

There’s no logical justification to increase defense spending by $54 billion — a 10 percent hike — at the expense of these programs. Trump talks about keeping America safe. We’re already awfully safe.

According to the New America Foundation, “jihadists” killed 94 people on American soil from 2005 to 2015. But a leaked Department of Homeland Security intelligence document, which the organization confirmed, shows that our government believes most extremists became radicalized years after moving to the United States. DHS recommends programs aimed at deradicalization — not massive defense spending.

There will always be radical lone wolf cases. But we already have the world’s most powerful military and intelligence. There hasn’t been a major, organized terrorist attack in this country since 9/11.

Trump’s budget plays off fears and paranoia and leaves us exposed to actual dangers that threaten our quality of life for generations to come.

Andrew Abramson