NYT’s Kristof Tweets The Stupidest Thing About Trump’s Budget Proposal EVER
On Thursday, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof – a man who once titled a column “Husbands Are Deadlier Than Terrorists” – has now topped his own high standards for idiocy. Tweeting about President Trump’s proposed budget, which slashes spending across a variety of agencies, Kristof tweeted:
First off, while the barbarians sacked Rome in 455 AD, they didn’t actually depose the Roman emperor until 476 AD.
Second, the Trump budget increases defense spending while cutting funding for the EPA, the State Department, the Agriculture Department, the Labor Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Commerce Department, the Education Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Transportation Department, the Interior Department, the Energy Department, the Small Business Administration, the Justice Department, and NASA. It also increases funding for Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs. It doesn’t touch the entitlement programs that actually comprise the vast majority of the budget.
The Roman Empire did not fall because of lack of funding for its labor department. It should have increased defense spending, restricted immigration, and stopped its governmental overreach domestically. Edward Gibbon suggested a few reasons why the Roman empire fell, including decline of family structure, high taxes and high spending, hedonism, and decaying military structure. Here’s Gibbon:
On Thursday, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof – a man who once titled a column “Husbands Are Deadlier Than Terrorists” – has now topped his own high standards for idiocy. Tweeting about President Trump’s proposed budget, which slashes spending across a variety of agencies, Kristof tweeted:
Reading through the Trump budget, I feel as the Romans must have felt in 456 AD as the barbarians conquered and ushered in the dark ages.
First off, while the barbarians sacked Rome in 455 AD, they didn’t actually depose the Roman emperor until 476 AD.
Second, the Trump budget increases defense spending while cutting funding for the EPA, the State Department, the Agriculture Department, the Labor Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Commerce Department, the Education Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Transportation Department, the Interior Department, the Energy Department, the Small Business Administration, the Justice Department, and NASA. It also increases funding for Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs. It doesn’t touch the entitlement programs that actually comprise the vast majority of the budget.
The Roman Empire did not fall because of lack of funding for its labor department. It should have increased defense spending, restricted immigration, and stopped its governmental overreach domestically. Edward Gibbon suggested a few reasons why the Roman empire fell, including decline of family structure, high taxes and high spending, hedonism, and decaying military structure. Here’s Gibbon:
Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight. The story of its ruin is simple and obvious; and instead of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long. The victorious legions, who, in distant wars, acquired the vices of strangers and mercenaries, first oppressed the freedom of the republic, and afterwards violated the majesty of the purple. The emperors, anxious for their personal safety and the public peace, were reduced to the base expedient of corrupting the discipline which rendered them alike formidable to their sovereign and to the enemy; the vigour of the military government was relaxed and finally dissolved by the partial institutions of Constantine; and the Roman world was overwhelmed by a deluge of Barbarians.